Iona Firouzabadi
posted 21 July 2006

Bertolt Brecht inspires adoration and vitriol in equal measure. 2006 marks the 50th anniversary of his death and brings a new production of The Life of Galileo to the National Theatre. According to Nicholas Hytner, artistic director of the National, the play deals with a very contemporary conflict: 'The clash of reason and unreason - secular truth and religious faith'. But in David Hare's newly revised text there is something more complex going on. Truth and faith are fundamental themes, but they are commingled with expediency and human weakness.

Galileo deals with the suppression and betrayal of ideas and ideals. As Galileo the man develops his theory of a sun-centred cosmos, overturning centuries of Roman Catholic dogma, Galileo the idea is elevated to a quasi-religious status by his friends and compatriots, Andrea, Federzoni and The Little Monk. He is both the sun in the firmament of his own life and a fallen star: a man who believes that the truth will set you free, but who is circumscribed by human failing. When he recants to save himself, he falls from heaven in the eyes of his acolytes.

Galileo is a hugely attractive, contradictory and emotive character, and as played by Simon Russell Beale, he bubbles with immense intellectual energy. He is a cheeky opportunist, an egotist, a callous yet loving father. The potential in the text for a fat, self-indulgent man is stripped away, as Russell Beale smokes cigarettes with a frenetic will that seems to almost deny enjoyment.

Director Howard Davies' modern dress production doesn't serve such ambivalence and complexity as well as it might. The revision of Brecht seems half-hearted and ill considered in parts. The female characters are clad in dresses, skirts and heels with a 1950s twist to them, reinforcing the sense of them as subordinate satellites to the men and Galileo. The choice to leave the church figures robed in their traditional dress, little changed for centuries, has a similar effect. Rather than illuminating character and theme this patchy design serves to underline the more schematic elements of Brecht's work, which much of Hare's adaptation has moved away from.In contrast, Bunny Christie's set is an impressive visualisation of changeability within the play, as well as of its salient solar theme. An echo of observatory and astrolabe, its revolving circular form is overhung by projections of sun, moon, earth and planets.

The performances of the supporting cast are mixed. Ryan Watson, as the young Andrea, is exuberant and intelligent. Zubin Varla is both subtle and impassioned as The Little Monk, who experiences a spiritual and ethical crisis in the face of Galileo's heliocentric universe. His performance rises to meet Russell Beale's. Other members of the cast are less dynamic. Julia Ford (Signora Sarti) has a tidal scouse accent - sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not - and both her character and performance are reminiscent of a bad musical. The adult Andrea (Bryan Dick) suffers both by comparison to his younger self (Ryan Watson) and in his duologue with Russell Beale at the play's climax, while Virginia (Elisabeth Dermot Walsh) is a cut glass performance that is just too perfectly rehearsed.

Hare's adaptation refines the play, but is inconsistent. Brecht's rhyming couplets are removed from the opening of each scene, but a masked dance and cabaret sequence are left at the beginnings of acts 2 and 3. Taken out of a broader stylistic context these don't so much alienate the audience as alienate the play from itself, and would surely have been better cut. While the production lacks a little coherence and courage, The Life of Galileo is a remarkably rich play in its examination of the conflicted human need to believe, and of our capacities to betray and to be reborn.

Till 31 October 2006.