Peter Shaffer’s Mozartian murder play Amadeus, the latest from one of the West End’s most dependable hitmakers, was arguably the London theatre event of 1979. But its early off-stage shenanigans rather echoed the manipulations of a Mozart opera, with celebrated but capricious director John Dexter the abusive Count Almaviva (Marriage of Figaro), perhaps, and Shaffer the seemingly supine Countess. Reportedly buttoned-up and nervous in Dexter’s presence, bubbling with frustration away from it, all one needs to know about the relationship of playwright and director can be deliciously gleaned from Dexter’s published annotations on then-National Theatre director Peter Hall’s own published diary entries concerning Amadeus: ‘28th March 1979
Shaffer: “I wouldhead. At the moment I would use a pistol to blow his head off. But I wouldn’t hold it to his head.” Dexter: “TOO COWARDLY AND AFRAID OF A KICK IN THE BALLS.”’
