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The Life of Galileo (Willett, trans.)

Full-Length Play, Drama  /  4w, 27m

John Willett, Bertolt Brecht

"Unquestionably Brecht's masterpiece." - New York Daily News

The time is of the emergence of the age of reason when Galileo was teaching young students the incredible account of how the earth moves around the sun, rather than the other way around. His heretical announcement, that both the moon and Jupiter onl…

The Life of Galileo (Willett, trans.)

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  • Cast Size
    Cast Size
    4w, 27m
  • SubGenre
    Subgenre
    Biography
  • Audience
    Target Audience
    Adult, Senior, Teen (Age 14 - 18)

Details

Summary
The time is of the emergence of the age of reason when Galileo was teaching young students the incredible account of how the earth moves around the sun, rather than the other way around. His heretical announcement, that both the moon and Jupiter only reflect the sun's light, is brought to the attention of the church and Galileo is summoned to the Vatican. His friends abandon him and his appeal to the Pope is intercepted by the inquisitor. Galileo recants, but even while imprisoned continues his writings surreptiously.

Galileo Galilei

Andrea Sarti

Signora Sarti, Galileo's housekeeper and Andrea's mother

Ludovico Marsili, a rich young man

Signor Priuili, the Bursar of the University of Padua

Virginia, Galileo's daughter

Sagredo, Galileo's friend

Federzoni, a lens grinder, Galileo's collaborator

The Doge

Senators

Cosimo de' Medici, Grand Duke of Florence

Court Chamberlain

Older Lady in Waiting

Younger Lady in Waiting

Grnd Duke's Lackey

Two Nuns

Two Soldiers

Woman

Old Woman

Fat Prelate

Two Scholars

Two Monks

Two Astronomers

Very Thin Monk

Very Old Cardinal

Father Christopher Clavius, an astronomer

Little Monk

Cardinal Inquisitor

Cardinal Brberini, later Pope Urban VIII

Cardinal Bellarmin

Two Ecclesiastical Secretaries

Two Young Ladies

Filippo Mucius, a scholar

Signor Gaffone, Rector of the University of Pisa

Ballad Singer

Ballad Singer's Wife

Vanni, an iron-founder

Official

High Official

Individual

Monk, peasant, frontier guard, clerk, men, women, children


  • Time Period 16th Century / Elizabethan
  • Cautions
    • No Special Cautions

Media

"Unquestionably Brecht's masterpiece." - New York Daily News

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Authors

Author

John Willett

Bertolt Brecht

Bertolt Brecht
Bertolt Brecht (1898-1956), playwright, poet and director, was born in Augsburg, Germany in February 1898. He established himself as a playwright during the 1920s and early 1930s with plays such as Baal, Man is Man, The Threepenny Opera and The Mother. In 1933, as Hitler came ...
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