(Images reproduced with kind permission from the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company)

Drama seemed the ideal medium for recreating the conversations that made Copernicus go against common sense and received wisdom to defend the Earth’s motion around the Sun.

Staged readings of the play have entertained audiences at theaters, universities, observatories, and scientific meetings in the United States and Europe. It had its world premiere production in Spring 2014 by the Boulder Ensemble Theatre Company in Colorado.

Reviews

“Sobel's elegant language and profound imagining make the audaciousness and majesty of Copernicus's thought so clear you can almost feel the earth shifting under your own feet as you watch.”—WestWord

“It is as contemporary as any play I've seen in a long time.  That's right.  The action takes place in 1543, and it's all still relevant today.”—Theater Colorado

 “In his time, Copernicus put his life and the welfare of his loved ones on the line in order to publish his proof. In Sobel's compelling adaptation of this historical sequence, we find, through set designer Tina Anderson's clever use of turntables, the celestial spheres reflected in the earthly interplay between Copernicus (Jim Hunt), Bishop Johannes Dantiscus (Bob Buckley), the visiting mathematician Georg Joachim Rheticus (Benjamin Bonenfant), Copernicus' housekeeper and lover, Anna Schilling (Crystal Eisele), and Copernicus' champion in the Church, Bishop Tiedemann Giese (Sam Sandoe).”—ColoradoDrama.com