Bill Capossere

CAST
Kathleen: 80 years old, recently widowed after being married for 56 years
Hannah: 52 years old, Kathleen’s daughter
Rob: 55 years old, Hannah’s husband
Emma: Kathleen and Rob’s 17-year-old daughter
Hannah and Rob’s AI House: Female voice over
Kathleen’s AI House/Richard Female/Male voice overs

Setting: the near-future
Time span: several years

Synopsis:
When Richard dies (choosing a peaceful death at a “Euth Center” rather than a slow death by disease) Kathleen decides to have her House AI be overlaid with his personality, exacerbating even more a bitter conflict with her daughter Hannah, who was already furious over how her father’s illness was kept from her. Hannah’s husband Rob and daughter Emma meanwhile find themselves caught between the two strong personalities. When Emma dies in a car accident partway through the play and Hannah and Rob find themselves opposed in how to handle their grief, it threatens to completely dissolve what is left of their family.

Stage right is a kitchen, stage left an in-ground pool, partially furnished. The play opens with Lynn and Simon watching their neighbor Roger ferrying furniture from his house to his pool. It’s revealed that Roger’s 5-year-old son Ryan drowned in the pool a week ago, that Roger’s wife Rachel has left, and that Roger blames himself for falling asleep and leaving the back door open, giving Ryan access to the pool. Lynn and Simon fight and she leaves. Scenes alternate between Simon and Roger, both of whom converse with an older version of Ryan (the same actor with different mannerisms). Simon’s scenes involve his memories of the neighbors and his eventual admission that he might have been the one to leave the door open. These scenes also show a gradual decline in Simon and Lynn’s relationship. Roger’s scenes involve him recreating his son’s room as he talks to Ryan and comes to terms with grief. In the final scene, Simon joins Roger, who explains what he’s doing. Simon confesses, but rather than the truth—that it may have been him who left the door open but he doesn’t know for sure—he tells Roger that he (Simon) definitely was the one, taking the full blame.

A mix of drama and comedy, Galileo’s takes place in a single afternoon in an old-style café/deli when a young man rushes in and reluctantly ends up taking the people inside hostage. The group, all of whom know each other, includes a pair of life-long friends, a man who believes himself to be Galileo, the café owner, and his often-acerbic niece Erin. How the young gunman found himself in this situation, and how “Galileo” fell into his delusion are two mysteries that are gradually revealed through the play’s action, even as the group’s relationship to the gunman slowly changes.
Erin, who has several direct address monologues, is the soul of the play, though in Act II, Galileo (nearly all of whose lines are the actual words, spoken or written, of the actual Galileo) becomes much more prominent, not only in terms of his own story, but in his surprising impact on the lives of the others. Beyond the surface action of the day’s events, Galileo’s is a play about connections and relationship, about parents and children, and about our place in this modern world and in the wider universe.