Richard Lutz watches Ian McDiarmid grab centre stage in the Brecht play about reason and faith.
Galileo, to many the father of modern science, held a radical and dangerous thought back in the early 1600’s. The Italian scientist believed in the theory, first put forward by Copernicus, that the earth actually traveled around the sun. A nice idea, but the theory was unfortunately held in abhorrence by the church which could not see the stars though the trees because it would conflict with their own addled theories that the earth, blessed by God, was the centre of the universe.
And so Bertolt Brecht’s play unfolds: modern science versus the church. Reason versus faith. And unfortunately the 17th century church in Italy won out because they simply showed the astronomer the instruments of torture. He got the inferred nasty message and agreed he was wrong.
Or did he? Brecht’s play A Life of Galileo, re-written by theatrical wunderkid Mark Ravenhill, reveals how the scientist, while in internal exile, kept quietly producing the scientific treatises that laid the foundation for what we call modern science.
Ian McDiarmid plays a blinder: his Galileo is testy, ironic, quirky, short tempered, loving as a father but stern as a teacher and radical thinker. The actor (better known in some quarters as Senator Palpatine in the Star Wars episodes) grabs centre stage and never lets go – even as a crumbling old man who admits he bowed beneath church leaders simply because he was scared of the threat of physical pain if he didn’t cave in.
He is ably supported by Karherine Manners as his daughter and Matthew Aubery as faithful acolyte Andrea who refuses to bow to the narrow-minded stupidly of the church and secretly takes Galileo’s newest works to free thinking Holland and, eventually, the changing world.
The large Rep stage is efficiently filled by director Roxana Silbert and designer Tom Scott with plenty of music, dance, colour and light in this production jointly presented by the Royal Shakespeare Company and Theatre Royal Bath. And Ravenhill’s modern take on Brecht’s operatic style is bang up to date, hard hitting and wry.
Birmingham Rep until 8th March. Tickets: 021 236 4455
The play is part of The Rep’s Epic Encounters season which looks at other work by Brecht. For more details, see birmingham-rep.co.uk
His book, “The dialogues…” had already been published before his trial, and passed by Vatican censors. It was later withdrawn and placed on the index of banned books (for 200 years), “… because of the earlier deceit practiced by Galileo”, as the church stitched him up with a forged document at his trial.
but what happens if you jump from a tower?
you land vertically below the place from which you jumped.
but if the world was spinning through space you would land slightly to one side because the earth would spin as you were in mid air.
that’s was the evidence that ptolemy was right
Love Brecht! Don’t see him often here in Seattle
One of the things I like about Christians in this country is that they are so marginalised, and so used to criticism that they rarely take offence when you are criticise their ideas.
Scientists are another matter: they rapidly take umbrage if you criticise their methods or question their authority.
Everybody listens to scientists, whilst virtually no one listens to Christians.
In that sense the world has turned upside down since Brecht wrote his play
If you were writing a play today about Galileo you would have to give more space to the Churches arguments, particularly after Fukashima and Chernobyl.
Modern scientists are subject to very little social control, and we would probably be better of if they were more accountable to society.
A working title might for a new play on Galileo might be, ‘The Pope was right’