Rehearsal

This rehearsal was filmed at a relatively early stage in the production when the actors were only just beginning to be ‘off the book’, and were still exploring the text together with The Life of Galileo director, Howard Davies. The scene they are working on, which they dubbed the 'sun spot scene', is one of the longest in the play. It starts out with an image of Galileo's household in which there is a clear divide between the sexes: the women, Signora Sarti and Galileo’s daughter, Virginia, are busy with housework, whilst the men sit around waiting to begin their scientific work under Galileo’s instruction. We learn of important but potentially dangerous new European experiments into sun spots.

Galileo’s young pupil, Andrea Sarti, the son of the housekeeper, demands to know why they too aren't exploring sun spots, and then answers his own question by suggesting that the Church in Rome has restricted Galileo’s freedom to work because they are afraid it will reveal what they think is heresy: the earth is not the centre of the universe. The scientific work that does begin under Galileo’s instruction is designed to test an old established thesis of Aristotle. Although this is far from the cutting-edge research the students long for, Galileo's practical experiment with ice, water and an iron needle does disprove Aristotle and also demonstrates Galileo’s brilliance as a teacher.

Virginia has been engaged for eight years to a prosperous landowner, Ludovico Marsili, who comes to visit her, bringing with him important news from Rome. She is thrilled to see him and rushes to put on her wedding dress to impress her fiancé. Whilst she is gone Ludovico tells the men that the Pope is dying, and that his successor is likely to be Cardinal Barberini, whom Galileo and his students recall – with barely-concealed excitement – as “a scientist, a mathematician”.

Ludovico has come not just to bring this news, nor simply to see Virginia; he has come to warn Galileo not to take the news of a potentially more scientifically enlightened regime in Rome as a green light to pursue his experiments into sun spots. But Galileo does not heed the warning and calls for the experiments to begin straight away. He ignores the fierce protests of his housekeeper, who warns that he threatens his daughter’s relationship with Ludovico, and reveals that Galileo has in fact secretly been looking at the sun through his telescope.

The telescope is brought in whilst Ludovico pleads unsuccessfully with Galileo not to challenge the status quo: his findings could cause the peasants who work on Ludovico’s family estates to doubt the wisdom and authority of the Church. Ludovico leaves without seeing Virginia, accompanied by a barrage of insults from Galileo’s triumphant students. They immediately set to work with relish to test, and then disprove, the old wisdom that the earth is the centre of the universe. At the height of their optimism and excitement, Virginia arrives in the depths of distress, knowing that her father has sent her potential husband away and, as she sees it, her future happiness has been sacrificed at the altar of his principles.

The Director’s Notes

Directing a play is a subtle art which involves not only staging the action but also trying to help the actors to find their own performances. Howard Davies is an experienced director who gently prompts his actors to emphasise key moments in the developing story and supports them by offering a sounding board. He encourages the actors to ‘think on their feet’ which makes good rehearsal and challenges the company to continually invent and to explore the play’s layers of meaning.

In the opening moments of the scene a pair of scales gets knocked to the floor. Howard suggests to Simon Russell Beale that the scales are “gently put back on” the table because they are scientific equipment. He reminds the men that despite their characters’ boredom at having to undertake the routine experiment involving ice, water and an iron needle, that the action is there as an opportunity to display Galileo’s brilliance as a teacher. It is also the first time the audience register that Galileo’s sight is fading (a result of his secret experiments on sun spots).

Howard asks for slightly bigger reactions to Ludovico’s news suggesting the potential opportunity represented by the change in Pope, and for the students to “check out how Galileo’s taking it”. He wants more reaction to the news that the new Pope, Barberini, has a scientific background and may therefore be more liberal in his attitudes towards scientific experiment.

Bertie Carvel, who plays Ludovico, says that he hasn’t quite made up his mind whether, when his character brings the news from Rome, he intends to warn Galileo not to take the news as the green light to explore sun spot theory, or whether he is really threatening him not to do so. Howard prefers the direct threat. Howard suggests to Simon Russell Beale that he should be aware that in the face of Ludovico’s threat the "stakes are raised". Just for a moment he hesitates, before deciding that he will ignore the threat and carry on with his work, this time in public and with the help of his students.