HISTORY OF IDEAS

THE HISTORY OF IDEAS

The programme is a principal vehicle for the Public Appreciation thrust, in collaboration with renowned playwrights from different parts of the world. The essence of the programme is the production of plays based on the lives of great personalities and events that contributed significantly to human thought in a demanding historical context. The objective of the programme is to achieve wide public reach for:

Inspiration regarding creative human endeavour.
Public awareness regarding the shaping of societies.

The History of Ideas programme aims at a minimum of one flagship production every year. In addition there may be events at a smaller scale,such as rehearsed readings of potential scripts. Many plays are original scripts developed within BLT. Playwrights around the world have admired the programme and have offered their scripts to us.

The programme began as Science Theatre. Subsequently, the scope was expanded and it became the History of Ideas programme. The following plays have been produced so far:

Life of Galileo (2024)

Aan abridged and contemporary adaptation based on the play by Bertolt Brecht.

Life of Galileo (2024)

Noor (2024)

An original script on the life of Noor Inayat Khan, the Special Operatives Executive of Britain in WWII. Produced as a two-actor performance in the Courtyard Theatre programme.

Monsters in the Dark (2018)

An original script developed in-house, based on the book The Emperor of All Maladies by Siddhartha Mukherjee, tracing the long history of coming to terms with cancer. The play opened in December 2018 at an International conference on Bio-Ethics.

Monsters in the Dark (2018)

The Bomb and the Swastika (2018)

By Amand Lucas, on the race during World War II to develop the atomic bomb. A reading was held at Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research in December 2018.

Socrates on Trial

By Andrew Irvine, drawing on the writings of Aristophanes, Plato and Xenophon. A reading was arranged specially for and by college students.

Photograph 51

By Anna Ziegler on the rivalry between two laboratories in the UK leading to discovery of the DNA double helix.

Emil’s Enemies (2016)

By Douglas Huff, based on accounts of the last assassination attempts on Adolf Hitler. The German underground had several senior military officers committed to the elimination of Hitler. One of the inner groups was a Lutheran pastor and eminent theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Emil's Enemies, Adolf Hitler, Dietrich Bonhoeffer

The Final Lecture of Pierre Gilles De Gennes (2015)

By Willard Simms. a dramatized reading of a new play based on the life of the father of Liquid Crystals science.

Dear Dr. Einstein (2015)

Dramatized readings of the Tagore-Einstein exchanges combined with a Panel Discussion organized in collaboration with National Institute of Advanced Studies.

Einstein: A Stage Portrait (2015)

A visiting production from the USA, authored by Willard Simms and performed by Tom Schuch. Part of an Einstein Festival commemorating 100 years of the General Theory of Relativity.

Drawing the Line (2014)

By Howard Brenton. A rehearsed reading of the highly successful British play on the circumstances leading to the partition of the Indian sub-continent into Pakistan and India.

Finding Ananda (2013 & 2022)

Another original play script commissioned by the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India, on the life and work of Swami Vivekananda – especially on the lesser-known humanistic side of his personality.

Inherit the Wind (2013)

By Robert E. Lee and Jerome Lawrence, based on the Scopes Trial, revisiting the debate between evolutionary biology and divine creation.

Small Infinities (2010)

By Alan Brody. The play examines the lesser-known aspects of the personality of Isaac Newton, who was born exactly one year after Galileo died.

Starry Messenger

By Ira Hauptman. The play revisits Galileo’s famous recant after the inquisition and the unanswered question if he secretly denied the recantation itself! The name of the play is also the title of Galileo’s famous book. He had it published in Holland because it was not permitted in Italy.

The Prophet and the Poet

An original script developed by the Academy of Theatre Arts, based on the exchanges between Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, with India’s freedom struggle as the backdrop. A hugely successful production, it has had over 110 performances and has toured widely, including four visits abroad.

Einstein’s dreams (2019)

By Alan Lightman. This is a novel by a physicist-novelist in MIT. He has given BLT permission to adapt it into a play. It is based on Einstein’s day-dreaming habits when young and working at the Patent Office in Berne. A staged reading was held at NIAS. A full production combining text with choreography opened in January 2019.

The Lamp at Midnight

By Barrie Stavis. A staged reading of the play centered around the trial of Galileo.

Tiger! Tiger! (2012)

A play by Dina Mehta, based on events in the life of Tipu Sultan (called the Tiger of Mysore) and the intrigues in his court that led to his defeat by the British. The play opened in December 2012 at Bangalore Fort in association with the Archaeological Survey of India.

Partition

By Ira Hauptman. A play on the Indian mathematical genius, Ramanujan, and the culture conflicts when he is invited to Cambridge by the legendary Prof. Hardy. A revival was performed in December 2014.