The College continued its winning habit of staging high quality drama with Peter Shaffer's 'Amadeus'. The tale of jealousy, faith, music and murder in late 18th and early 19th Century Vienna boasted three splendid central performances from Richard Hanrahan as the eponymous Mozart, Molly Sleigh as the errant genius's wife, Constanze, and Simon Brant as court composer Salieri, driven by a violent envy at his rival's God-given talent.

In Shaffer's play, Mozart is a man of wild contradictions and Hanrahan struck just the right balance between coarse buffoonery and child-like vulnerability, making us both love and hate him at the same time. His wild manic laugh and blatant arrogance around court meant Salieri's quest to destroy him had sympathy from the audience, but as his life descended into despair Hanrahan stripped away the bluster beautifully and exposed the vulnerable man beneath.

On the surface, Constanze is a paper thin character, but Sleigh developed all the nuances of the role and we saw her grow from a callow youth to a strong determined woman who Mozart completely relied on.

Brant was fantastic and he had to be. The play revolves entirely around Salieri who narrates the action as both a young and old man in often lengthy soliloquies. The way Brant immersed himself in the role was utterly admirable and absolutely made the play. At one point Salieri hails himself as 'the patron saint of mediocrity', but his performance was far from mediocre, it was excellent.

Elsewhere, Huw Beynon and William Hart stood out as the gossiping Venticelli. Honourable mentions must also go to George Smith as Joseph II and Jethro Turner as Baron Gottifried van Swieten who prompted regular laughs from the audience. Director Sarah Gibson made good use of the stage, particularly with the use of inventive lighting and shadows. The timeless music that accompanied the action served as a marvellous counterpoint to the degradation on stage and made you wonder how people who could produce such beauty could also be hell-bent on self-destruction.