Ian McCabe

Rock solid ‘Amadeus’

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By Wendy Carson

Catalyst Repertory presents “Amadeus,” the Tony-winning drama by Peter Shaffer that imagines a deadly rivalry between composers Antonio Salieri and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

For anyone who has seen the epic film version of this story (also by Shaffer), the thought of staging it on the small black-box stage of the IF Theater seems like utter madness. However, for director Casey Ross, it was just one more hurdle to overcome. Since the script details memories from the “deathbed confession” of Salieri to destroy Mozart, the need of lavish sets and huge orchestras is secondary to the plotting and intrigue of the story. Ross utilizes a more stripped-down set with gorgeous costumes and minimal props, which forces the actors to display an amazingly high level of skill, with the entire cast was more than up to the task.

The set, designed by Arden Foster Tiede, is like a flight of stairs that also suggests a balcony, an upstairs room or a throne chamber, positioned so as to require a new seating arrangement for this venue. As Ross also demonstrated with her unique staging of “Streetcar” in 2023, using vertical space in this manner profoundly opens up the small stage area, while maintaining its intimacy.

This simplicity helped me focus more on the actual dialogue and caused me to notice things that I had never considered in previous iterations. For instance, the show is titled “Amadeus” because that translates to “love of God,” which is the basis of the story. Although Salieri is convinced he made a bargain with God, these sorts of things fall more into the Devil’s milieu. Plus, since he believes that Mozart has been chosen by God, the desire to destroy such a vessel would just be a devilish delight as well.

For anyone familiar with Tristan Ross (no relation to Casey), and how he dominates every role, it was impressive to witness his ability to fade into the background when necessary and allow others to hold the spotlight as required. However, he also embodies the desperation and rage that his turn as Salieri requires.

As for the titular character of Mozart, Ian McCabe brings the role to life in a delightful manner. Being a child prodigy, it is highly likely that Mozart himself fell somewhere on the Autism spectrum and McCabe hints at this through his candor and confusion of others’ abilities. McCabe shows us a person who never really had a childhood, ironically never fully growing up, and who only desired to earn his father’s love – while easily manipulated into making choices that would prevent him from doing so.

While the story does revolve around the composers, the rest of the cast shines even in the smallest of roles. Michelle Wafford shows that regardless of her character’s commonplace background, Mozart’s wife Constanze Weber was a shrewd businesswoman who was ruthlessly in love with and devoted to her husband’s well being. The spectacularly angelic voice of Shelbi Berry Kamohara as Katerina Cavalieri shines throughout and perfectly compliments the power of Mozart’s music. Reno Moore and Jack Paganelli as Salieri’s spies in Vienna elevate what is normally thought to be lesser roles into vital moments throughout the narrative. Likewise, Yolanda Valdivia as the Cook and Brant Hughes as the Valet prove that one does not require speaking lines to bring forth a solid performance. However, nobody embodies this idea more than Alaine Sims as Teresa Salieri. With her heart-shaped lipstick and a flick of her eyes, she exudes volumes of dialogue unheard but greatly understood.

We also get solid performances from those in the court of Emperor Joseph II (David Mosedale), Mozart’s biggest – and in this company, nearly only – fan. Doug Powers as Rosenberg and Craig Kemp as Von Strack have little patience for the impish young man, while J. Charles Weimer as Von Swieten comes to regret bringing him into Masonic membership.

More allegory than history, the power of this production is tangible in its performance – so incredible that, like the Emperor, all we can say is a bewildered “There it is!”

Performances are Friday through Sunday, through May 17, at the IF, 719 E. St. Clair, Indianapolis. Info at catalystrepertory.org; tickets at indyfringe.org.

Catalyst creates outstanding ‘Streetcar’

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By Wendy Carson and John Lyle Belden

With all of the winter weather we are having, it is satisfying to have Catalyst Repertory bring us a steamy trip to 1950s New Orleans with its imaginative production of Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire.”

The first clue to the uniqueness of the show is the inventive set design of Nick Kilgore. He has basically cut apart the walls and rooms of an apartment house to make them easily flow into each other without losing each location’s identity. The actors enter, exit, and perform within the full 360 degrees of set as well as multiple levels available to them. With the size of the stage, you might think this is incredibly cramped, but it never feels claustrophobic. In fact, the layout causes a rare intimacy to occur between the troupe and audience, seated “in the round,” which makes the whole a more enjoyable evening. A couple of pieces – a bedroom vanity, a nearby bar piano – even extend into the audience space naturally. The concessions bar for patrons at intermission is even part of the set, suggesting a piece of nearby Bourbon Street.

For those unfamiliar with the tale: Fading Southern belle Blanche DuBois (Sara Castillo Dandurand) turns up on the shabby doorstep of her younger sister, Stella (Anna Himes) and Stella’s husband Stanley Kowalski (Ian McCabe). Blanche lives in a world of delusion she consistently concocts to keep her from realizing that she is desperate, alone, old, and without any other place to go. After months of living with her disdain and lying, Stanley is determined to send her packing.

This description, of course, doesn’t do justice to the genius of Williams’ drama, and in the practiced hands of director Casey Ross – herself an artisan of plot and dialogue – narrative richness and tension as thick as Louisiana humidity imbues the play from start to finish.  

Dandurand transforms into Blanche, wearing her pride like a fading flower, masking dysfunction with flirtatious charm so well it fools everyone – except Stanley. For his part, McCabe ably puts on Kowalski’s working-man swagger. He is devoted to Stella, but has issues (to put it mildly), complete with a low-simmering rage fed by a lifetime of being called a Pollack, among other things. Perhaps the fact he has to present a public mask helps him detect Blanche’s. The two circle each other throughout, like a pampered cat and a mangy dog, claws out, fangs in their smiles. Himes is also wonderful as a Stella who sees the good in Stanley, is eagerly the yin to his yang, and tries to be at peace with the fact her debutante days may be gone forever.

Making a stunning dramatic debut is Brian DeHeer as Mitch Mitchell, Stanley’s bowling and poker buddy who knew him since their WWII service together. Feeling lonely as he tends to his ailing mother, Mitch starts falling for Blanche – it won’t be a soft landing. 

In excellent support are Audrey Stonerock and Matt Kraft as neighbors Eunice and Steve Hubbell, as well as Tom Alvarez as poker buddy Pablo, Mitchell Wray as a boy who comes around, and Viviana Quinones as a local flower-seller. Alvarez’s partner in Magic Thread Cabaret (a co-producer), Dustin Klein, tickles the ivories at the corner piano, with old tunes and his new compositions to underscore the action. At the club microphone is the exquisite voice of Courtney Wiggins. David Mosedale and Wendy Brown complete the cast, mainly in the final scene.

For either those new to “Streetcar,” or Williams fanatics looking for something fresh, we cannot recommend this production enough. There are adult themes and herbal cigarettes (though perhaps the first-ever Ross-directed play without an F-bomb), yet if you can take the heat, you won’t regret the experience of this scorching masterpiece.

Performances run Fridays through Sundays, through March 19 at the IndyFringe Basile Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair, Indianapolis. For tickets, go to IndyFringe.org.