Monday 8 MayThe morning of the first day begins with a read-through of the play. All actors are present except for the children playing Young Cosimo and Young Andrea. Even at the read-through I get a real sense of what an exciting production this will be. The actors’ clarity of delivery makes the themes and arguments of the production burn brightly and the range of characters also shows the range of arguments, with Galileo’s the constant voice. Simon Russell Beale, who plays the part, seems already to have found the enthusiastic, passionate energy that I feel Galileo should have at the start of the play. The company looks at the model of the fabulous set designed by Bunny Christie. Howard Davies, the director, and Bunny talk the company through their approaches to designing the show. The look – which includes the costumes – is contemporary, with walls that can change configuration to show the movement of time and place. The drum revolve, which is built into the stage, will be used to create other settings – sometimes outside, like a balcony, and sometimes inside, for instance a corridor. It is simple but very classy and both the adaptation and design seem uncluttered, which should help the script breathe. We cannot change the fact that the play is set in the 17th century, but because of the plot we will not make this a costume drama, but create a contemporary world for it to live in. In the afternoon Howard gives the company a short talk on the history behind Galileo and the two opposing astronomical points of view: the Copernican and Ptolemaic systems. Essentially the former theory proposed that the earth moved around the sun, and was not, as the bible, Ptolemy and the Catholic Church all taught, the centre of the universe around which all the planets (including the sun and moon) moved in harmony, fixed to crystal spheres. Galileo’s espousal of the new scientific knowledge embodied in the teaching of Copernicus was what led to his dramatic confrontation with the Church. David Hare, who has adapted the play, also speaks to the company. Brecht, he explains, has no sympathy for actors: he changes time and situation and throws out characters at will. David describes some of the background to the play – Brecht’s writing process (which involved many writers), his initial title for it ( The Earth Moves ), and Brecht’s exile to Hollywood, where he met and worked with the actor Charles Laughton who once played the title role. We also discussed the history of the play and its last production at the National Theatre in 1980, with Michael Gambon as the eponymous hero. In his adaptation, David Hare made some key changes to Brecht’s play, including giving it a more contemporary feel, making it less of a ‘Renaissance’ play, clarifying the arguments, shortening the text (the plague scene is cut by half and the carnival scene is simplified). We go on to discuss what the play is about, whether it is anti-church or anti-authority. We note the idea in the play that science can be used to relieve the suffering of the poor. Is the play about Communism? The fact that it was conceived by Brecht during the Second World War reinforced the powerful fact that there is an unmistakable reference to Hiroshima in the final scene. We talk about Galileo’s journey. Where is he politicised and why? Does he know the full implications of his work from the start? Is he innocent and/or naive? Ultimately knowledge will win, knowledge is pure. | | |
