Life of Galileo, aka Galileo, is a play by Bertolt Brecht, written in 1938 and first performed at the Zurich Schauspielhaus in 1943. At the time of its premiere, Brecht, who typically directed his own plays, handed over directorial duties to Leonard Steckel, who also played the title character.
The play follows Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's moons and of the heliocentric nature of the earth's solar system. With this discovery comes a great deal of controversy, as Galileo must come into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church, whose officials fear that Galileo's teachings (published in vernacular Italian rather than Latin) will stir up revolutionary impulses among the lower classes.
The play, in addition to being an historical account of Galileo's scientific findings, has a Marxist bent. Brecht interprets Galileo's astronomical discoveries as significant not only for their scientific implications but for the ways they dispel many of the superstitions and beliefs put forth by the Catholic church. By simply sowing seeds of doubt among the citizens of Italy, he presents a huge threat to the authority of the church, which is not only a threat to religion, but a threat to the economic hierarchies of the country as well. As the play describes it, peasants and workers are willing to do their work so long as they feel that their position in society has been made for them by an all-powerful God. Galileo's proof that the universe does not revolve around the earth, and that the heavens are more elusive than previously believed, throws this system of thought into doubt.
After premiering the work in Germany and fleeing from the Nazis, Brecht retooled the play into an English version, collaborating with Charles Laughton, which premiered in Los Angeles in 1947. This version, the most commonly produced English version, was simply called Galileo. Brecht changed some of the original version of the play to reflect a more ambivalent depiction of scientific progress, having seen the devastating effects of such events as Hiroshima. In 1947, the same year the play premiered in Los Angeles, Brecht was brought in for questioning by the House Un-American Activities Committee.
