Photo Flash: First Look at ORBITS, Opening Tonight at Drayton Arms Theatre

The planet-sized egos of left wing German playwright Bertolt Brecht (played by Peter Saracen) and Hollywood film star Charles Laughton (played by Edmund Dehn) clash as they negotiate the translation and adaptation of Brecht's play Life of Galileo, ORBITS, for its American premiere, with Laughton lined up for the lead. The production opens tonight 23 February at the Drayton Arms Theatre, and BroadwayWorld has a first look at the duo onstage below!

The themes of Life of Galileo - an account of Galileo's trial for the heresy of believing that the Earth orbits the Sun and his subsequent recantation under threat of torture - reflected in the lives of Laughton, a gay man in 1940s America, and Brecht, whose left wing sympathies would eventually lead him before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Orbitsexplores how - just as Galileo crumbled under the Inquisition - Brecht's beloved 'concrete truth', could crumble under pressures, political, historical and personal. It's a fitting tale perhaps for the post-truth times we find ourselves in today.

Orbits by Wally Sewell, directed by Anthony Shrubsall, will play Drayton Arms Theatre from Tuesday February 21 to Saturday March 11. Visit www.draytonarmstheatre.co.uk for tickets and more information.