Jul 29 2009
Galileo’s well-toned calves
By David Finnigan
Full disclosure: I work in that vanishingly small gap-between-genres that is Science Theatre. You probably haven’t heard of it, though combine those two concepts in your head and you’ve pretty much got it.
Science theatre is the art of translating science concepts into performance – and it is an art, believe me. Boiling down complex scientific concepts into the language of engaging drama is fraught with challenges but incredibly rewarding when you get it right.
Science Theatre has grown exponentially over the last several decades although the number of well-known playwrights who work in the field remains few. Tom Stoppard (Arcadia). Michael Frayn (Copenhagen). And in Australia, Alana Valentine.
Ms Alana Valentine is a writer of science theatre
In 2000, professional playwright Alana Valentine produced two plays for the Australian National Maritime Museum. Following the success of these works, Valentine contacted other institutions advocating the power of museum theatre as an interpretive tool. Toner Stevenson, the Manager of the Sydney Observatory, responded to Valentine’s letter with a proposal for a theatre piece to accompany a Galileo event at the Observatory. That play, A Leap of Faith, was so successful that the Sydney Observatory commissioned Valentine to produce two new four-minute plays featuring the famed Italian astronomer and philosopher Galileo. In the plays, entitled Observation and Revolution, Galileo converses with Charles Darwin, Caroline Herschel and Isaac Newton.
“Science is so magical and astronomy is so remarkable that lends itself to theatre very easily,” says Valentine.
“Ever since, as a child, I saw Professor Julius Sumner Miller on television inviting us to ’see the egg go into the bottle’ I have known that science is pure theatre!”
Professor Julius Sumner, the enigmatic host of ABC TV's 'Why Is It So?' from 1963 to 1987.
“‘I was lucky enough to work with an extremely well-informed astronomer, Dr Nick Lomb, and an extremely supportive and adventurous Observatory manager, Toner Stevenson,” Valentine says.
“Both know their subjects and audience so well that they could clearly and carefully detail to me the science involved and the ideas they wished to communicate. Nick and Toner were fastidious about the science being accurate but they were also playful and indulgent in allowing humour and a silliness factor that you need for a piece to entertain.”
All three plays - Observation, Revolution and A Leap of Faith – are being filmed over the course of three days at three different locations. In A blog posting by Observatory manager Toner Stevenson about the first day of filming says:
We are filming in Sydney, so Vaucluse House, with its pleasure garden, is the perfect setting. If you have visited the house and garden you will know the variety of plants is extraordinary! The costumes work well and we all admire Galileo’s well-toned calves. Galileo was a great gardener and walker and perhaps had the same.
Filming 'Revolution' for the Sydney Observatory.
We get the camera rolling with haste as the foreman on a nearby building site agrees to stop his pile-driver for an hour, almost long enough for actors Peter Flett (Galileo) and Brian Adams (Darwin) to complete their dialogue and Zoltan to get down most of the sound. We were even lucky enough for a QANTAS A380 to fly overhead – but what that has to do with Galileo or Darwin? You will need to find out when we put the four minute play on-line.
Observation, Revolution and A Leap of Faith will be available to view on the Sydney Observatory website from 15 August and will be performed live at the ABC on 29 August.
Find out more about the performance here.
