Life of Galileo
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Life of Galileo, also known simply as Galileo, is a play by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht which was first published in 1940. A screen adaptation of the play, directed by Joseph Losey, was produced in 1975 under the title Galileo.
The plot of the play concerns the latter period of the life of Galileo Galilei, the great Italian natural philosopher, who was persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church for the promulgation of his scientific discoveries. The play embraces such themes as the conflict between the dogmatic church and science, as well as constancy in the face of oppression.
[edit] Versions of the play
Brecht started work on the play as early as the 1930s, while still in Germany. After emigrating to the United States from Hitler's Germany (with stopovers in various other countries, among them the USSR, in between), Brecht translated and re-worked his play in collaboration with the actor Charles Laughton. The result of their concerted efforts was the 'American version' of the play, titled simply Galileo, which to this day remains the most widely staged version in the English-speaking world. The American version premiered at the Los Angeles Coronet Theatre in July 1947 under the direction of Joseph Losey. The same version also formed the basis for Losey's 1975 film adaptation as part of the American Film Theatre series.
After his return to (then East) Germany (Brecht was subpoenaed in the US by HUAC for alleged communist connections), Brecht continued to work on the play, now once again in the German language. The final German version premiered at Cologne in April 1955.
For a detailed comparison of the early, the American, and the final German version consult the second reference.
[edit] Rough outline of the plot
Galileo is short of money. A prospective student tells Galilei about a novel invention, the telescope ("a queer tube thing"), being sold in Amsterdam. Galileo replicates it, but then sells it to the Venetian Republic as his own creation.
Galileo uses the telescope to substantiate Copernicus' heliocentric model of our solar system, which is highly incompatible with both popular belief and church doctrine. His daughter's marriage to a well-off young man (with whom she is genuinely in love) fails because of Galileo's recalcitrance to distance himself from his unorthodox teachings.
Galileo is brought to the Vatican for questioning. Upon being threatened with torture, he recants his teachings. His students are shocked by his surrender in the face of pressure from the church authorities.
Galileo, old and broken, living under house arrest, is visited by one of his former pupils, Andrea. Galileo gives him a book containing all his scientific discoveries, asking him to smuggle it out of Italy for dissemination abroad. Andrea now believes Galileo's actions were heroic and that he just recanted to fool the ecclesiastical authorities. However, Galileo insists his actions had nothing to do with heroism but were merely the result of self-interest.
[edit] References
- Brecht, Bertolt (1966). Galileo: English version by Charles Laughton. Edited and with an introd. by Eric Bentley. New York: Grove Press.
- Danter, Matej (2001). "History of changes of Brecht's Galileo". Online: New Mexico State University. (accessed 18 March 2006)
- National Theatre's web page about its production of Galileo
- Bertolt Brecht, Life of Galileo, Translated by John Willett, Bertolt Brecht: Plays, Poetry and Prose, The Collected Plays, Volume Five, Part One, Edited by John Willett and Ralph Manheim (Methuen, London, 1980).
