Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
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Thiruvananthapuram
Science’s original sin
ALKA TYAGI
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Close to two thousand people watched a production of “The Life of Galileo” at JNU campus recently.
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Skilful A scene from H.S. Shivaprakash’s “The Life of Galileo”.
Bertolt Brecht began writing “The Life of Galileo” in exile in Denmark and completed it in America at the end of World War II . This end came only after the atom bomb had devastated Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan. The atomic research, g
uarded and kept ever secretive by the authorities, led only to the making of the atom bomb which endangered the entire human species. Brecht believed that Galileo in the beginning of his scientific career was pro-people. After his historic recantation, however, his research was completely cut off from the common man, which earned the sciences of astronomy and physics the name of pure sciences. For Brecht this kind of dissociation was nothing less than a sin. He wrote later in a preamble to the American version of the play, “The atom bomb is, both as a technical and as a social phenomena, the classical end-product of his contribution to science and his failure to society.”
The life of Galileo Galilei, the 17th Century mathematician and physicist of Italy, left the generations to come with questions that have not been answered even to this day. His life symbolised conflict between the old and the new, religion and science, authority and freedom, and commitment and survival. Another important aspect of his life was that it was located at the historic moment of the transition between the rule of Church and the rule of the market.
In this simmering September heat in Delhi, close to 2000 people watched Bertolt Brecht’s “The Life of Galileo” at the JNU campus recently. The play was performed by Bahroop which has been sustaining itself through its commitment to theatre and socio-political issues.
This troupe with its low-budget productions keeps theatre close to the masses. The script in Hindustani was commendably rendered by Shahid Anwar, who has also translated Indira Parthasathy’s “Aurangzeb” staged in Sri Ram centre this summer.
Skilfully edited
H.S. Shivaprakash, himself a renowned playwright and poet, directed the play. The production turned out to be a skilfully edited compact version of an otherwise long play. The director had conceived and structured the original content in an innovative design that defies any stereotypical description of the form. Brecht’s very own emphasis, “the public must remain always clearly aware that it is in a theatre”, i.e. on alienation, was reinforced by using simple techniques like keeping the actors on stage throughout and doing everything in full view of the audience — the make-up, the movement of actors and properties, etc. However, this is done in a manner that the focus of the play on Galileo’s life as a scientist is never lost. The strength of the production stems from the way the director weaves the whole content of the play in a poetic form. Use of a circular structure for the actors’ movements and doing away completely with the last vestiges of realistic theatre like blackout between the scenes made the play flow in a single continuous movement without the jerks of scene breakage.
Intelligent editing of scenes also helped: Take ‘the plague scene’ and the scene between ‘the little monk and Galileo’. Though these are complete and interesting, they do not contribute to the main thrust of the play. Also, the last scene is worked out beautifully by juxtaposing young and old Andrea carrying Galileo’s book “Discorsi” right into the present. This marks a complete departure from the last scene of Brecht’s play. But the essence of dramatic content is condensed in brief lyrical passages in this improvisation.
Galileo’s role was played admirably by Bineel Biswas. Equally commendable were the roles of young Andrea by Kriti Sharma and older Andrea by Ghufran Ahmad. Tariq Hameed enthralled the audience with his unique gestures in the role of Curator and Inquisitor. Shormistha Saha who played Signor Sarti was also the lead singer.
In short, what makes this modest production much more memorable than the all too common big-budget show pieces is its refreshingly innovative approach to conveying the essence of a classic.
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Friday Review
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
|
