Galileo and the Pope

摘要

Richard Goodwin's engrossing, witty and moving - if somewhat ahistorical - play about Galileo Galilei and Pope Urban VIII recently completed a run in Boston, Massachusetts, with a fine production mounted by the Huntington Theatre Company. Significantly reworked since its original production in 2003, Two Men of Florence deserves to become a classic.rnGoodwin retains a reference to the title of his earlier version, The Hinge of the World, which plays on the alternative meaning of 'hinge' as 'cardinal'. Having completed the masterpiece that will destroy his standing with the Catholic Church, Galileo says to his daughter, "You and I, Maria, the saint and the philosopher, together we lean on the hinge of the world." Goodwin's depiction of their relationship, a role enhanced since the earlier production, deviates from the historical one that Dava Sobel described so compellingly in her 1999 book Galileo's Daughter.