Free Republic

The playwright Sir Peter Shaffer, whose critical and popular successes in the West End and Broadway included Equus, Amadeus, and The Royal Hunt of the Sun, has died aged 90. His agent, Rupert Lord, said: “He was simply at the end of his life but delighted to have been able to celebrate his 90th birthday with friends and then, I think, decided it was time.” The National Theatre, which staged the world premieres of many of his plays, and was already planning the first revival of Amadeus at the theatre since it opened there in 1979, described him as “an...

It is 30 years since Amadeus swept the board at the Academy Awards. Miloš Forman’s 1984 film of Peter Shaffer’s 1979 play, took home eight statuettes that night, including best film, best director, best actor and best adapted screenplay. Arguably the finest movie ever made about the process of artistic creation and the unbridgeable gap between human genius and mediocrity, it has taken its place in motion picture history and is invariably described as a masterpiece. All this is despite the fact the film plays shamelessly fast and loose with historical fact, taking as its basis a supposedly bitter rivalry...