Stephen Hawking faces many challenges in his life, examples being the challenges of scientific exploration and discovery, challenges with his health, and personal challenges such as continuing to be a husband and father.
Play title: God and Stephen Hawking
Author (s): Robin Hawdon
Publisher: Joseph Weinberger Plays
Publication Date: 2000
Genre: Drama
Primary Discipline: Physics
Secondary Discipline: Astrophysics
Scientist (s): Primary scientists: Stephen Hawking, secondary scientist(s): Albert Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, and various others
Source Texts: A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking, Music to Move the Stars by Jane Hawking
Character Breakdown: Stephen Hawking, Jane Hawking, Elaine Mason (Nurse), and God (also seen as Einstein, Sir Isaac Newton, Jonathan Hellyer Jones and other various characters for brief moments)
Setting: Various portions of the life of Stephen Hawking taking place at Cambridge University in England and the Hawking residence.
Time Period: Over the course of Stephen Hawking’s adult life, approx. from 1963-1990s
Synopsis of Play: Stephen Hawking faces many challenges in his life, examples being the challenges of scientific exploration and discovery, challenges with his health, and personal challenges such as continuing to be a husband and father. His main priority, of course, is to continue to study the universe, no matter the sacrifices he must make in his other challenge areas. God finds Stephen’s refusal to believe in anything but science both amusing and thought-provoking, of course. It is for this reason that He narrates the plot and takes the form of various characters throughout the play to try to get Stephen to ultimately answer one of science’s most basic questions: Who or what created the universe, and for what purpose? (Synopsis written by Emma Marston)
First Performance Date: August 23 2000
First Producer: Jonathan Church
Performance History: Theatre Royal Bath UK August 23-26 2000
Links:
https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2000/aug/14/artsfeatures2
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2000/sep/02/theatre
https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jun/04/vanessathorpe.theobserver1
Entered by: Emma Marston and Jason Putnam
Production Photos:
