Soulmate.
Isabella Tianzi Cai
PH258 Philosophy and Literature
April 25, 2009
Written by famous playwright Richard N. Goodwin and starring Emmy award winner Edward Herrmann, Two Men of Florence is an interesting theatrical reenactment of the historical confrontation between Galileo Galilei and the Catholic Church in the seventeenth century. It is a serious play that explores the human capacity for science and religion. Centered on Galileo, it is by nature tragic, but it also stimulates our intellect and renders some old questions new. The stage is alive throughout, appealing to and surprising our senses at various places.
The play begins with the burning of a Dominican monk Giodano Bruno, who holds heretical beliefs such as the heliocentric view of the world first proposed by Nicholas Copernicus. Bruno is seen in the cold blue spotlight through some translucent draperies; only his words penetrate through the engulfing flames without any distortion. As a result of this special stage effect, the initial tone of the play is set rather chillingly. I almost wanted to cry for the poor old man.
The play then follows a less disturbing emotional trajectory till the end. Galileo’s (Jay O. Sanders) discovery of dissimilar objects falling in space in equal time is conveyed through his body language and his speech. Interestingly, the more nonchalant the people surrounding him are, the more sympathetic we as audience are. When his daughter Maria Celeste (Molly Schreiber) shows signs of understanding and tolerating his over-joyousness, the force of my sympathy weakens.
I bet Goodwin had wanted us to be affected by Maria by giving her a couple of fairly long monologues. Indeed among all other characters in the play, she appeals best to the average spectator in the theater. However, her affectionate voice prevents the play from achieving its tragic potential because we could pity Galileo more if he had not only been trampled upon more by his adversaries but also distanced by his daughter. In his book The Theory of Moral Sentiments, Adam Smith argues that people tend to sympathize with sorrow more than joy and great anguish effects more sympathy than small chagrin. Since Goodwin must know how to make a play more dramatic, I think that he must have purposely suppressed our emotions in this play so as to engage our intellect.
The play may get very intense at parts because of all of its philosophical discussions on science and religion. However, its stage art is superb. Three or more scenes, happening at different places and at different time, can take place simultaneously on the stage because of a multi-lane center wheel that accommodates different groups of interlocutors. The rendering of the stars is near-perfect for it is extremely close to my own experience of them in the countryside under the summer sky: the stars are numerous, they press hard to the eye, they are both near and far, and they even twinkle! As for smell, there is the smoke from the thuribles. Also in one scene, Galileo’s room is wrapped around by an amazing ceiling-high tapestry of real candles lit by Maria and fake candles undistinguishable from the real ones. Usually the set-up from one act to the next act take very little time or no time at all because the props can move with the floor.
If a film were to be made from the same story, it could be more intimate. However, Two Men of Florence allows us to look at the actors and the actresses unfiltered. At times, Jay O. Sanders’s and Molly Schreiber’s performances made me forget the physical theater.
