There are few famous plays about famous scientists. Bertolt Brecht’s Life of Galileo, written from 1937 to 1939, is one. The opportunity to get Galileo’s views on the play, which he has just seen, is a unique and poignant occasion. I started by asking him whether he had enjoyed the play.
Galileo Galilei: Of course I didn’t enjoy it. I was mildly flattered that someone would write a play about me and was curious to see how I was represented. Do I really eat in so gross a manner? No, this is not an accurate reflection of what happened, the author simply used my life to promote his own ideas. That is wrong. If one uses real people in a play there is some obligation to depict them accurately. I find even the title annoying – Life of Galileo, as if my whole life was a battle with the church…
Lewis Wolpert: We’ll return to that later. Can we first explore how you became interested in science.
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