God and Stephen Hawking by Robin Hawdon Published By Josef Weinberger
‘God and Stephen Hawking’ is the most original and challenging of all Hawdon’s plays. It caused a minor media-storm on its pre-London tour, starring Robert Hardy and Stephen Boxer – when Stephen Hawking, having first given it his endorsement, than denounced it as an intrusion on his private life, despite the fact that it is generally recognised as a tribute to him. The critics took dramatically opposing sides, and in the controversy the play never made it to London, despite a generally enthusiastic reception from the early audiences and commentators.
The play uses Hawking’s extraordinary life and career as a vehicle around which to explain in theatrical terms the scientific themes explored in his own best selling book “A Brief History Of Time”. In a hugely demanding central role (played in that production by Robert Hardy) God appears as himself, and in various guises as Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, professors, mathematicians, the Pope, and even the Queen!
The play is still highly relevant, since ‘The Theory Of Everything’ which Hawking famously conjectured as one great Eureka moment which would bring all competing theories together, has yet to be discovered. Hawking himself died in 2018, and there is now no impediment to the play.
Audiences emerge, not only having had a hopefully entertaining evening, but also with an increased understanding of modern scientific enquiry into the complex mysteries of the universe, and its impact on traditional religious attitudes.
Cast
- GOD
(Also seen as Newton, Einstein, Pope John Paul 11, The Queen,
various Professors and Scientists, and other assorted characters.)
- STEPHEN HAWKING
- JANE HAWKING
- NURSE
Setting
A bare stage backed by as large a projection cyclorama as is feasible.