9
Galileo
for it compells him to speak English all day. More and more
English phrases begin to appear in extant manuscripts.“
After several interruptions, mostly due to
Laughton’s movie commitments, the first completed ver-
sion was presented in early September 1945: ‘Galileo by
Bertolt Brecht, English version by Charles Laughton.’
Hanns Eisler began with the composition of the stage
music. Until then all the work had focused on the adequate
English translation of the play from 1938/39. But now, with
the dropping of the American bombs on Hiroshima and Na-
gasaki (August 6/9, 1945) the world experienced the be-
ginning of the nuclear age – which prompted Brecht to do
a complete re-writing. Lyon writes:
“The debut of the
atomic age, Brecht insists, changed the biography of the
founder of modern physics overnight by putting his conflict
with the authorities in sharper relief. […] He undertook
complete rewrite in order to sharpen the contours and con-
demn Galileo more explicitly as a traitor. The 1938/39 version
of the play had stopped short of condemnation by balancing
Galileo’s apparent betrayal of science against his cunning in
outsmarting the Inquisition. […] In late 1945 Brecht elimi-
nated all what might be construed as a vindication of
Galileo’s actions.“
The opening night of ‘Galileo’
at the Coronet Theatre (…)
was the season highlight:
many Hollywood stars
were in the audience,
keen to see Laughton’s stage
appearance in many years.
