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Giordano Bruno’s crime was to proclaim the universe infinite, herald the infinity of the human mind as a part of the infinite universal mind and classify any restrictions on free human spirit as a sin against God. For this, he was burned at the stake in 1600. This play has him sharing a cell before his execution with two Commedia actors who have no idea why they are there and out of sheer boredom memorise Bruno’s philosophical tractates hoping to “sell them to heretics” when they get out. Arrested, interrogated, enticed into collaboration and finally sent to the stake by his best schoolmate Domenico now working for the Inquisition, Bruno’s ghost reappears to him after Domenico’s own arrest for the crime of knowing Bruno’s works by heart.
First produced in Soho Poly theatre in London in 1985, followed by a BBC radio version and a 1990 German production at the Eurotheater in Bonn. A shorter radio version was broadcast on Czech radio in 2013.