GALILEO'S DAUGHTER. To 28 August.
Bath/Malvern
GALILEO'S DAUGHTER
by Timberlake Wertenbaker
Theatre Royal In rep to 14 August 2004
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm & 11am 31 July
Audio-described 4 August 2.30pm
BSL Signed 31 July 11am
then
Festival Theatre Malvern In rep 18-28 August
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2pm
Runs 2hr 40min One interval
TICKETS: 01225 448844 (Bath)
01684 892277
bookings@malvern-theatres.co.uk (Malvern)
Review: Timothy Ramsden 27 July
Major production of a play still in need of development.Timberlake Wertenbaker's biggest success, Our Country's Good, is based on a novel drawn from 18th century diaries. So, her new play, out of Dava Sobel's Galileo's Daughter about the remarkable-sounding Virginia Galilei, sounds a success waiting to happen. But in theatre the last success's ingredients usually fail to rise; this is a mere trundle through events, especially in the overlong second act where similar points are repeatedly made, with diminishing returns.
Galileo, who ended up tried for heresy, put his 2 daughters in a convent. One, Arcangela, is unimaginative, only wanting dad to bring wine and fawning on the Father Confessor. But Virginia, taking the convent name Maria Celeste, has a scientist's speculative imagination, values her own father, likes him bringing her a telescope and easily out-argues a mere cleric. If only the play were more about her, less a re-run of Brecht's Life of Galileo - which shapes its historical material far more dramatically.
The difference between the daughters is simplistically rammed home, just as the patterning in the acts' openings seems self-conscious. Both start, unnecessarily, with a modern tourist being shown the joint tomb of Galileo and Virginia. Then we move back to the 1630s, with a plainchant being taught in act one, a courtly dance in act two. Later, Galileo's old friend, now Pope, visits him in prison, disguised behind a mask to signify the separation of Pope and friend. All clever, but mere dramatic devices when there's no life in the heavy-weather script.
Interesting ideas slip by, like Galileo's daughter trying to put a religious gloss on her father's naively enthusiastic speech. Hall manages some stirring theatrical moments lighting takes us suddenly from the cool convent to red-tinged high church politics. Yet Galileo's recantation is a simple speech watched by stony-faced cardinals. Later, we learn they were divided in views on his heresy - a divide calling for expression, yet it's merely reported.
The performances are strong but the play needs much more work. It's a pity Wertenbaker didn't use Sobel's book as one source for her imagination rather than, apparently, chaining herself to it so entirely.
Priest: Peter Gordon
Tourist/Nun: Hannah Emmanuel
Maria Celeste: Rebecca Hall
Arcangela: Sophie Winkleman
Abbess: Anna Cartaret
Father Anthony: William Chubb
Galileo: Julian Glover
Pope Urban VIII: Jamnes Laurenson
Francesco Niccolini: Guy Lankester
Lady Caterina: Tessa Churchard
Guillermo: Gyuri Sarossy
Director: Peter Hall
Designer: Kevin Rigdon
Lighting: Peter Mumford
Sound: Gareth Fry
Music: Mick Sands
Choreographer: Sue Lefton
Associate director: Trish Rigdon
Costume: Kevin Rigdon, Trish Rigdon
2004-07-29 11:41:15