The review of the play

A good play--Galileo Galilei 

Nina Yang

W&C III

Ms. Guarino

11/16/2014

  Have you ever heard that Galileo was a plagiarist? After watching the play Galileo by Bertoit Brecht, I reacquainted a new Galileo who was totally different from what I had learned about him before in my textbook as a great scientist.

  In the play, Galileo occasionally found out how to make a telescope, which was already invented by someone else. However, his greed made him tell everyone that he actually invented the telescope. With the telescope, he was able to observe the planets in the space. He then found out that the earth was not the center of the universe. In fact, the sun is the center of the universe. He had some students to teach at that time, but his theory was actually against the church and the Bible. The pope was angry. Meanwhile, his daughter was going to merry with someone she really loves. However, since Galileo didn’t stop his teaching, his daughter’s fiancée left. At last, his daughter became a nun and took care of his father for the rest of his life.

  The ending was pretty peaceful than I expected. It didn’t like a normal ending that tells everyone a result. It was not a satisfactory or a sorrowful ending. It ended quietly without audiences’ expects. Besides, the language that was used in the play was also kind of confused because it was hard to understand. The story was happened more than four hundred years ago, so the language and the words they used were old English. In addition, I was confused by some of the actors since they were acted as multiple characters. Therefore, I couldn’t recognize who’s who in the play. Maybe they could put on the nametag so that the audience can know whom are they playing. The stage was over simplicity. I think they could put something more to show the time period. Maybe something old, and some actor’s costumes were not that fit for them. These things kind of distract audience attention. All in all, the show was good and all the actors were very diligent to the play. They memorized all the lines that were even hard for us to understand, especially the girl who was acting as Galileo. She was disguised as man successfully. Her outfits were perfect. She even used her body language to make herself look more like a man. I was surprised by her acting skill. Last but not least, the lighting was good in the play. The audiences were able to see the important part in the play. It was a useful prop in the play to lead audience attention, but didn’t distract the audiences’ attentions.

  I would definitely recommend others to see the play. The play was well acted, and all of them paid diligence in the play. They were acting by their hearts. Also, we learned much stuff that was out side the textbook. Why don’t you go see it?