God and
Stephen Hawking E X T R A C T * |
STEPHEN: …. Sorry, sir, I’d love to argue all night but we must get ready for the ball. (HE LEADS JANE OFF BY THE HAND. GOD (AS NEWTON) CALLS AFTER THEM.) GOD: Careful now. Don’t get bewitched by the occasion. (TURNS OUT FRONT) Round one - a draw perhaps. And if we've offended anyone with our rejection of certain widely held doctrines, you must remember that I have to debate with him on his own strictly logical terms. (A BEAT) For the moment. TAKES OFF HIS WIG AND MOPS HIS BROW. Whew! (STARES AT THE WIG) The vanity of your breed! To endure such discomfort for the sake of appearances. STARTS TO UNDO HIS COAT BUTTONS. Who imbued you with such a quirk? I'm sure it wasn't me. GOES OFF. THE BACKSCREEN CHANGES TO SHOW PART OF THE GARDENS. MOONLIGHT, LAWNS, TREES, COLOURED LIGHTS. DANCE MUSIC PLAYS - GLEN MILLER OR SOME SUCH. STEPHEN AND JANE ENTER HAND IN HAND. JANE: A wonderful night. STEPHEN: I'd rather be at the opera. JANE: (SLAPPING HIM PLAYFULLY) You and your opera. Wagner's your god, isn't he? STEPHEN: Well he's certainly provided more conclusive inspiration than most gods. JANE: Ah, but who gave him the inspiration? STEPHEN: Science will discover even that one day. JANE: You really believe that, don't you? STEPHEN: Yes. JANE: Well I don't know who gave Glen Miller his inspiration, but I want to dance. STEPHEN: I can't dance. JANE: Of course you can. SHE TAKES HIS ARMS AND LEADS HIM INTO A GENTLE DANCE. THEY SWAY TOGETHER FOR A MOMENT. Oh, Stephen, we're so different - why do we get on so well? STEPHEN: Opposites attract. Basic law of electro-magnetism. (KISSES HER NECK) Even though you won't come to bed with me. JANE: I want to. I just.... Ask me to marry you. STEPHEN: Jane - you know I.... JANE: I don't care how long you've got. Let's make the most of it. STEPHEN: I'm getting worse. I'm going to be crippled, for God's sake! JANE: For God's sake? STEPHEN: No. (BITTER) God obviously gave up on me, didn't he? JANE: I haven't. I can look after you. STEPHEN: That's no life for anyone. JANE: Well it's probably my only hope of hooking a genius, so I'll chance it. STEPHEN: I'm no genius, Jane. I can't even come up with a subject for my PhD thesis. JANE: Perhaps you aren't searching in the right places. Try asking God that. STEPHEN: Oh, I've tried it. I told him, now's your chance to show me you exist. JANE: What happened? STEPHEN: Well I did have a dream that I met Einstein, but he wasn't much help. HE STUMBLES. SHE HOLDS HIM UP. You see, I can't even smooch properly. JANE: You look after the PhD, I'll look after the smooching. THEY DANCE OFF. THE MUSIC FADES AND BACKSCREEN CHANGES TO SHOW THE INTERIOR OF AN OBSERVATORY OR LABORATORY. GOD ENTERS AS ALBERT EINSTEIN. HIS HIGH DOMED AND WILD-HAIRED WIG MAKES HIM INSTANTLY RECOGNISABLE. HE BEAMS AT THE AUDIENCE. GOD: Yes, it's obvious who I am now. Another god. The god of twentieth century science. To progress further we need a bit of serious science now. Don't panic. I'll make it as easy as possible. And anything you don't understand, the odds are we scientists don't either. THE BACKSCREEN SHOWS THE VARIOUS EQUATIONS CONNECTED WITH RELATIVITY - INCLUDING E = Mc2. My Theory of Relativity. What on earth does it mean? E = Mc2. What in heaven does that mean? It's quite simple - 'relatively'. (CHUCKLES AT HIS OWN PUN) Isaac Newton discovered that all bodies attract each other. A force we call gravity. The more massive the bodies, the bigger the attraction, the further apart the bodies, the smaller the attraction. Brilliant! I'm attracted towards all of you at this precise moment, but because I'm attracted a lot more strongly towards the centre of the Earth I don't sense it. THE BACKSCREEN SHOWS THE SOLAR SYSTEM….. * |
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