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Nearer the Gods
David Williamson
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eBook - ePub
Nearer the Gods
David Williamson
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About This Book
Australia's most well-known playwright returns with a sweeping historical drama.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%In Nearer the Gods, David Williamson brilliantly recreates Sir Isaac Newton's battle with the Royal Society to prove his astonishing universal theory of gravity.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%'Australia's most enduringly popular social comedy writer. [His work is] keenly observant and satirical.'âSydney Morning Herald
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Topic
LetteraturaSubtopic
TeatroACT ONE
ACTOR: Iâm about to play Sir Isaac Newton. Weâre taking you back to the late seventeenth-century England.
He takes off his wig.
We wonât be wearing the type of clothes they wore. Those of you who prefer period accuracyâ
He points to his costume.
âyouâve got about thirty seconds to savour the detail.
King Charles the Second is on the throne. The monarchy has been restored after eleven years of austere Puritan rule under Oliver Cromwell.
The great English universities taught that the ancient Greeks had discovered everything of importance. They hadnât.
In Europe, Galileo and Kepler had established that the planets revolved around the sun, but no-one knew why.
The answer to that question fell to Isaac Newton. He ultimately gave us the greatest leap in knowledge of the natural world weâve ever been gifted.
But as youâll see, it almost didnât happen.
He indicates the action about to unfold.
MARY HALLEY, 24, a spirited and pretty young woman, enters the parlour of their small but neat house in Islington, London, with a letter in her hand. Her husband, EDMUND HALLEY, 26, a handsome and urbane young man, looks up from some mathematical calculations he is doing at his desk. The year is 1684.
MARY: A letter for you.
HALLEY: Delivered by whom?
MARY: A royal equerry in a grand coach. Itâs from King Charles.
HALLEY bounds up from his desk, takes it and rips it open.
So?
HALLEY: Heâs coming to the Royal Society. Heâs requested that I be there. Along with Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke.
He looks at MARY.
Along with Wren and Hooke?
MARY: Why so surprised?
HALLEY: Theyâre big fish, Mary. The biggest in the Society.
MARY: Youâre not exactly a minnow yourself. When you came back from the South Seas the king granted you a personal audience.
HALLEY: I thought he wouldâve forgotten.
MARY: You create more of an impression than you think, Edmund. As you finally realised when we first met.
HALLEY: I was surprised.
MARY: What surprised me that night was that you seemed blind to the fire storm of fluttering female eyelids all around you.
She smiles and pats him.
Your modesty is endearing, my love, but it can also be irritating. You received the invitation because you deserved it. [Indicating the letter] Does he give a reason for his visit?
HALLEY: [reading] âTo inform him of our work in areas which might interest him.â
HALLEY looks at MARY who raises her eyebrows quizzically.
Inside the members lounge of the Royal Society, London, two men are discussing exactly the same letter from the king. They are ROBERT HOOKE, 49, highly intelligent, but forceful, opinionated, egotistical and argumentative. He looks across at his friend and colleague SIR CHRISTOPHER WREN, the well-known mathematician and architect, who is holding a similar letter from the king to that which HALLEY has received. WREN is also highly intelligent, but wry and balanced, always prepared to see the best in others.
WREN: âTo inform him of our work in areas which might interest himâ?
HOOKE: My recent work on the modes of vibration of glass plates would surely be of great interest.
WREN: [wryly] Certainly, but letâs first ask what His Majesty would like to know.
HOOKE: [prickly] My work wouldnât be of interest?
WREN: [always the diplomat] Of course, Robert. Of course,...