Life of Galileo was written by Bertolt Brecht in 1938 and looks at the life of the polymath who discovered the world was round and who single-handedly took on the Church with his progressive ideas. Bangalore Little Theatre has adapted the play to suit today’s audience, doing away with its original run time of three-plus hours.
One of the oldest English language theatre groups in the city, the Bangalore Little Theatre (BLT) was started in 1960 as a community troupe. Even today, the cast and crew participate voluntarily for the love of theatre, says Sridhar Ramanathan who directed Life of Galileo.
Sridhar who has been associated with BLT from 2003 says the troupe predominantly stages English-language productions, including Indian classics and children’s plays. “We also have a vertical titled History of Ideas that include plays which talk about stories of people in historical context,” says Sridhar, adding that in the past, BLT has also staged plays on the mathematician Ramanujam and the British chemist Rosalind Franklin, known for decoding the molecular structure of DNA.
A scene from Life of Galileo by Bangalore Little Theatre
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
Vijay Padaki, a long-time member of BLT had published Four Classics on the Indian Stage in 2019, which comprised English translations of regional plays. Among these was The Anklet, a translation of the Tamil play Silappadikaram, which was staged by BLT. The late Roddam Narasimha, an aerospace scientist, had ideated on History of Ideas with Vijay.
This year, the BLT team settled on a piece about Galileo as they had not staged a play on him in Bengaluru for a while. Plus, the number of scripts about him gave them enough material to work with. Sridhar says they finalised on three scripts and over the past year, they collectively worked on crafting it to their specifications.
“The process was open and the idea was to build a community that would choose a script, work on it together, and then produce it,” he says, adding, they wanted to create a different experience as opposed to staging a play from a set format.
Almost all of the 34 members in the cast and crew have a day job, and over 20 of them have been with BLT from the inception and conceptualisation of Life of Galileo. The troupe has added original music as well as elements such as supposed children’s nursery rhymes of the time that would give audiences an idea of the man and his life.
A scene from Life of Galileo by Bangalore Little Theatre
| Photo Credit:
Special Arrangement
“What is interesting about this play, is that it does not explicitly reveal Galileo’s argument with the Church. Instead, it leads up to that incident and its impact. We found it relevant to portray how challenging it is for new ideas to gain acceptance in society, how difficult that journey can be, and how Galileo faced that problem.”
“It may not be a path others would choose, but the way Galileo looks at it is quite different. That is why we felt Life of Galileo was relevant to our times.”
Life of Galileo will be staged at Jagriti Theatre on February 15 and 16, at 3.30pm and 7.30pm on both days. Tickets available on BookMyShow and Jagriti Box Office.
Published – February 13, 2025 12:23 pm IST