SMALL INFINITIES - a stage play by Alan Brody

When Sir Isaac Newton discovers the universal law of gravitation, his pursuit of God's unified design through mathematics, optics, and forbidden alchemy threatens to destroy his relationships and reputation in Restoration England.

Small Infinities, a biographical drama chronicles the scientific and personal struggles of Sir Isaac Newton from 1664 to 1720, focusing on his revolutionary discoveries and the human cost of genius.

The play opens during the plague year of 1665, with young Newton at his mother Hannah's farm in Woolsthorpe, where the famous apple incident occurs. However, Brody's Newton sees not a single apple but thousands of windfalls, leading to his breakthrough understanding of universal gravitation. The play explores Newton's troubled relationship with his mother, who abandoned him as a child to remarry, leaving him with deep wounds that fuel both his brilliance and his isolation.

Newton's scientific journey unfolds through his contentious relationship with Robert Hooke at the Royal Society. When Newton presents his groundbreaking work on optics, demonstrating that white light is composed of colors, Hooke challenges him publicly, creating a lifelong enmity. This conflict establishes Newton's pattern of secretiveness and reluctance to publish, fearing criticism and theft of his ideas.

The emotional center of the play emerges through Newton's relationships with two key figures: Edmund Halley, the loyal astronomer who becomes his champion and friend, and Nicholas Fatio de Duilliers, a brilliant young mathematician from Amsterdam. Fatio understands Newton's work with an intimacy that both thrills and terrifies the older scientist. Their relationship develops into something deeper than mentorship, with homoerotic undertones that Newton struggles to acknowledge or accept.

Newton's multifaceted genius is revealed through three interconnected pursuits: his mathematical invention of calculus (which he calls "fluxions"), his optical experiments, and his secret alchemical work. All three represent his quest to understand what he believes is God's unified design for the universe. However, his Arian religious beliefs (denying the Trinity) and his alchemical experiments could result in his execution if discovered.

The dramatic tension builds as Halley pressures Newton to publish his work on celestial mechanics, which will become the "Principia Mathematica." Newton fears exposure not only of his scientific ideas but of his heretical religious beliefs and his relationship with Fatio. The play explores how Newton's need for secrecy conflicts with his desire for recognition and understanding.

Catherine Barton, Newton's vivacious cousin, provides a counterpoint to his isolation, planning to keep house for him in London and integrate him into society. Her worldly ambition contrasts sharply with Newton's spiritual and intellectual pursuits.

The climax comes as Newton finally agrees to publish the "Principia," recognizing that his discoveries about gravitation will revolutionize humanity's understanding of the cosmos. However, this decision means exposing himself to public scrutiny and potentially sacrificing his private relationships and secret studies.

The play concludes with Newton's recognition that he is "God's prophet of science" in his age, destined to reveal divine truth through mathematics. Yet this prophetic role demands sacrifice - of personal happiness, intimate relationships, and the freedom to pursue his forbidden interests in alchemy and heretical theology.

Brody's Newton emerges as a complex figure: a man of towering intellect whose emotional isolation stems from childhood abandonment, whose revolutionary discoveries about the universe are matched by his revolutionary religious beliefs, and whose fear of exposure wars with his need to share his revelations with the world. The "small infinities" of the title refer both to Newton's mathematical method of calculus and to the infinite cosmos his laws revealed, as well as to the small, infinite moments of human connection that his genius both craves and repels.

The play presents Newton not as a distant historical figure but as a deeply human character whose scientific revolution was inseparable from his personal struggles with faith, love, ambition, and the terrible isolation of genius.