galileo dramaturgy booklet

8/7/2019 Galileo Dramaturgy Booklet

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/galileo-dramaturgy-booklet 1/43

1

Though on its surace Lie o Galileo may appearto be an historical sketch o Galileo Galilei, Brecht is no

historian: he is an artist with his own creative agenda.

Brecht manipulates history to construct his own story

o a new age in conict with the old. His theatricalized,

artistic approach mixes act with fction throughout

the play.

Real fgures such as Galileo, his daughter Virginia,

Cardinals Bellarmine and Barberini, and Grand Duke

Cosimo II de’ Medici share the stage with completely

fctional characters Andrea Sarti and his mother,

Campanga land-owner Ludovico Marsili, The Little

Monk Fulganzio, and lens-grinder Federzoni. Also,some actual are as fctionalized as the invented ones:

Brecht pulls Virginia rom her convent (and eliminates

her siblings), turns the adult Grand Duke Cosimo into

a child, and renders Procurator Priuli a mouthpiece or

capitalism.

Real events such as Galileo’s use o the tele-scope to discover the Medicean stars, his embrace o

i n t r o d u c t i o n :experimenting with history



2

Copernicanism, his recantation, and his house arrestare similarly altered to artistic ends, linked across

historic time to events in Brecht’s own lie, includ-

ing Hitler’s rise to power and the role o science in

the Holocaust and in the development o the Atomic

Bomb.

Finally, this perormance brings Galileo’s seven-teenth century Italy and Brecht’s mid-twentieth centu-

ry Europe and America into conversation with our own

social, cultural, and political moment. Conict within

the play stems rom the clash o dierent systems

o knowing – Galileo’s scientifc methodology diers

rom the disputations o the academics and the nar-

ratives o aith put orth by the church while Brecht’s

Marxist rhetoric colors the story he constructs. What

is at stake when we play with history, as Brecht does?

Perhaps Lie o Galileo makes clear that history, much

like the heavens Galileo studies, is not quite as fxed as

we believe it to be.



3

The ollowing pages comprise a time line o some

historical events, starting beore the events o the play,

proceeding to the 1990’s. Pages 2-25 are a more detailed

time line and comparison o events that take place dur-

ing Lie o Galileo, with dramaturgical commentary.

s e l e c t e dt i m e l i n e



4

This page

Galileo

Others

1 5 0 0

1

6 0 0

1 7 0 0

1586Begins workin physicsfollowingArchimedesrather

thanAristotle,teaches,lectures,studiesfallingbodies.

1581Enrolls in theUniversity of Pisa.

1585 Returns

to Florencewithoutreceiving hisdegree.

1579Galileoconsiders joining theCatholicOrder.

1564Galileo Galileiborn in Pisaon February15

1574The Galileifamily movesto Florence.

1572Tycho Braheobserves anova,concludes

that theheavens arechangeable.

1559First Indexof ProhibitedBooks(Index

librorumprohibi-torum).

Catholics wereforbidden toread any bookplaced on theIndex.

1551CollegioRomanofounded byIgnatius de

Loyola in Romeadvancesphysics,mathematics,and astronomy.

1543Copernicuspublishes DeRevolutionibus

1 5 5 0

Pages 2-25 (Events in the play)



5

1

8 0 0

1

9 0 0

2

0 0 0

1577Braheobserves acomet,rejects the

notion of thecrystalspheres.

1590Cosimo II de'Medici born onMay 12. He willeventually

becomeGalileo'spatron.

Brecht alters the facts of Cosimo'sbirth, makinghim much younger.

1600GiordanoBruno, abeliever inCopernicus's

theory of heliocentrism,burned at thestake forheresy.

1604a new star isobserved inthe heavens.

1608HansLipperheyrequests apatent on the

spyglass, arefractingtelescope, inHolland.

1606SonVincenzioborn onAugust 21.

1600DaughterVirginia bornon August 13.

1601

DaughterLivia born onAugust 18.

1605 Galileoargues byparallaxmeasure-ments thatthe star is

beyond themoon andthus in theheavens.Therefore,changein theheavens mustbe acknowl-edged.

1589-92Galileoteachesmathematicsat theUniversity of

Pisa andbegins hisstudy of fallingbodies.

1592Becomeschair of mathematicsat theUniversity of Padua in theVenetianRepublic.

1587First voyageto Rome,where GalileomeetsChristopher

Clavius.Applies for alectureship of mathematicsat theUnviersity of Siena.

1609

2009 GalCon at Caltech

1550-1608



comment

6

Brecht has wealthy (and entirely fctional) Ludovico Marsili

deliver the news o the spyglass to Galileo in Scene 1.

Ludovico, a landowner, represents or Brecht the power o the

wealthy over the common man. Through him, Brecht comments

on the mistreatment o the workers (here peasants) by the rulingclass, and introduces a critique o capitalism. Ludovico, though

stupid, has the money to pay or lessons while the intelligent

Andrea Sarti – another fctional character – cannot aord to pay

and must go without instruction.

Brecht urthers this with the entrance o Mr. Priuli (a histori-

cal fgure who worked or the University and later became Doge)

who insists that Galileo will only be given a raise i he produces

inventions that will make money or the Republic. Galileo seizes

upon this new invention, as yet unknown in Venice, as a means o

increasing his salary.

Virginia makes her frst appearance in this scene as a

young woman. In reality, she was 9 years old in 1609.



historical record brecht’s version

7

Scene 1: Galileo

Galilei, a teacher

o mathematics at

Padua, sets out to

prove Copernicus’s

New Cosmogony

Galileo hears o the spyglass and

improves its magnifcation.

1 6 0 9

Scene 2: Galileo

presents the

Venetian Senate

with a new

invention

Galileo presents an 8x telescope to

the Venetian senate; his salary is

doubled and he receives tenure at the

University o Padua. Galileo uses the

telescope to observe the moon.



comment

8

Brecht has Galileo state, “10 January 1610. Today mankind

can write in its diary: Got rid o Heaven.” Though such specifcity

suggests historical exactitude, this scene represents Brecht’s play

writing at its best - it is drama, not act.

Galileo indeed observed the moons o Jupiter in January 1610and likely shared his observations with his riend Giovanrancesco

Sagredo, yet nowhere in his writings does he take so strong a

stand as to abolish heaven or even to question the validity o the

Catholic aith he practiced. The entrance o the slighted Priuli,

who eels Galileo misrepresented the telescope as his own inven-

tion, again rather accurately fctionalizes history. There is evidence

to suggest that Priuli believed the telescope to have been an

original invention by Galileo, one whose patent would be granted

to the Venetian Senate.

Brecht takes great liberties with this scene, most

notably making Cosimo II a boy o 9, despite the act that in

1610, the historical Cosimo II was a man o 20 with a wie

and children. Brecht urther dramatizes the unwillingness

o authority to acknowledge his observation by looking

through the telescope, but Cosimo II and many ofcials

surely viewed Jupiter’s satellites. Thus what Brecht depicts

is a dramatization o the tension his observations evoked.

Through this scene, Brecht makes maniest the clash o the

new age with the old.




9

1610

Scene 3: 10 January

1610. Using the

telescope, Galileo

discovers celestial

phenomena

that confrm theCopernican system.

Warned by his

riend o the pos-

sible consequences

o his research,

Galileo proclaims

his belie in humanreason.

Galileo observes the moons o Jupiter

and notes their movements. He

determines that there are our satel-

lites, which he christens the Medicean

stars. Galileo also maps star

ormations. In March, Galileo pub-lishes Sidereus Nuncius, dedicated to

Cosimo II.

Scene 4: Galileo

has exchanged the

Venetian Republic

or the Court

o Florence. His

discoveries with

the telescope are

not believed by the

Court scholars

In March, Galileo travels to Pisa to

show Cosimo II the Medicean stars.

In July, Galileo is appointed Chie

Mathematician o the University

o Pisa and Philosopher and

Mathematician to the Grand Duke o

Tuscany. The appointment is or lie.

Galileo also notes the strange appear-

ance o Saturn; the telescope revealed

its rings. In September, Galileorelocated to Florence. In December,

Galileo documented the phases o

Venus, urther strengthening the

proo o the heliocentric system.



10

By inserting an outbreak o the plague in this moment,

Brecht reveals a contradictory aspect o Galileo’s character. That

is, Galileo previously proclaims his belie in human reason, yet he

rather unreasonably stays in Florence at the risk o his own lie.

While such a choice marks him as an extremely dedicatedscientist, his decision to remain is ueled by his passion to learn

rather than a reasoned response. Moreover, this scene makes his

recantation all the more poignant. Here he risks pain and illness

where later he choose sel-preservation. Historically, there was no

major outbreak o plague reported during this exact time, although

a 1630-31 outbreak killed upwards o 1.5 million people in Italy.

comment



11

1611

Scene 5: Un-

deterred even by

The Plague, Galileo

carries on with his

researches

Galileo arrives in Rome on March 29.

Fabricius begins his research on the

sunspots and publishes a book on

them in June. Galileo also observes

sunspots and shares his observations

with his colleagues. In April, Galileo is

inducted into the Lincean Academy; at

a celebratory banquet, the name tele-

scope is frst used. In May, the Collegio

Romano certifes Galileo’s celestial

discoveries, although the members do

not necessarily agree with his interpre-tation o these discoveries. They honor

him at a banquet the ollowing month.

Galileo returns to Florence in August.

In October, Cardinal Barberini becomes

his patron.




comment

12

Brecht keeps Virginia with Galileo or the entirety o the play.




13

1612

Galileo publishes several letters on

sunspots, entering into an intellectual

discussion with many other astrono-

mers also publishing on the subject.

1613

Marina Gamba married Giovanni

Bartoluzzi. Virginia and her sister

Livia enter the Convent o San Matteo

in Arcetri. In December, BenedettoCastelli, proessor o Mathematics as

the University o Pisa and a student

o Galileo, deends the Copernican

theory to the Grand Duchess Dowager

Christina o Lorraine. Upon hearing

about this event, Galileo composes

a long letter to Castelli on his viewsabout the relationship between sci-

ence and Scriptures.



comment

14




15

1614

Tommaso Caccini, a Dominican riar,

preaches a sermon in Florence against

Galileo and mathematicians who

subscribe to the Copernican view

which, Caccini avers, is heretical.

Caccini’s superior apologizes to Galileo,

yet controversy still surrounds the

Copernican system. A Dominicanriar, Niccolo Lorini, who had earlier

criticized Galileo in private conversa-

tions, fles a written complaint with

the Inquisition against Galileo’s

Copernican views. He encloses a

copy o Galileo’s letter to Castelli. In

March, Caccini gives a depositionto the Inquisition. In April, Cardinal

Bellarmine writes to Foscarini, a

Carmelite Friar who published a

book stating the Copernican system

is indeed compatible with Scripture,

cautioning him to treat the Copernican

theory as a hypothesis only and

includes Galileo in his comments. In

December, Galileo goes to Rome to

deend his Copernican ideas.

1615



comment

16

Brecht condenses the confrmation o Galileo’s fndings

and the placing o Copernicus’s theory on the Index in order to

heighten the conict between these two systems o thought. He

grants Galileo a victory, only to have it immediately taken away

rom him.

Brecht announces Virginia’s engagement to Ludovico

in this scene in order to later show how Galileo conducts

his research at the expense o his daughter’s happiness,thus raising, in a highly personal manner, the necessity to

develop an ethical code that considers the social expense

o scientifc inquiry. This engagement is purely fctional as

Virginia, now Sister Maria Celeste, had been in the convent

or three years. Moreover, the conversation between Virginia

and the Cardinal Inquisitor is fctional, used by Brecht to

show how the orces o the Inquisition are circling in onGalileo and his amily. Brecht heightens the exchange

between Cardinals Bellarmin and Barberini, again showing

the representative o authority asserting their power over

the scientist.

In this fctional event, the Little Monk humanizes

Brecht’s more abstract arguments about power and social

control o the lower classes.




17

1616

Scene 6: The

Vatican Research

Institute, The

Collegium

Romanum, con-

frms Galileo’sfndings

A committee o consultants declares

to the Inquisition that the proposi-

tion that the Sun is the center o the

universe is absurd in philosophy and

ormally heretical and that the propo-

sition that the Earth has an annualmotion is absurd in philosophy and at

least erroneous in theology.

Scene 7: But The

Inquisition puts

Copernicus’s teach-ings on The Index

(March 5th, 1616)

Scene 8: A

conversation

On orders o the Pope Paul V, Cardinal

Bellarmine calls Galileo to his resi-

dence and administers a warning notto hold or deend the Copernican

theory. An unsigned transcript in the

Inquisition fle, discovered in 1633,

states that Galileo is also orbidden

to discuss the theory orally or in

writing. The Congregation o the

Index suspends Copernicus’s On theRevolutions until corrected and bans

Foscarini’s book entirely, Galileo is

not mentioned in the decree. In May,

Cardinal Bellarmine writes a letter to

Galileo certiying that Galileo had not

been on trial or condemned by the

Inquisition.



comment

18




19

1618

In October and November, three

dierent comets appear. The Thirty

Years War begins.

1619

1620

1621

Marina Gamba dies. Vincenzio Galilei

is legitimized. Galileo’s views on the

comets are much requested by the

leading astronomers o Europe.

Cardinal Barberini sends Galileo a

poem entitled Adulatio Perniciosa,

composed by him in honor o Galileo.

In January, Galileo is elected Consul o

the Accademia Fiorentina. In February,

Cosimo II dies and is succeeded by his

11 year-old son Ferdinand II.

{ 1 6 1 7 }



comment

20

Through Ludovico’s discussion o the need to brutally control

the peasants o his estate, Brecht suggests that a new intellectual

understanding o the universe could provoke the lower classes to

revolt.

By voicing such concerns, Brecht hoped to convey to the au-dience that current social conditions are also constructed through

knowledge and can similarly be altered.




21

1623

Scene 9: Ater

keeping silent or

eight years, Galileo

is encouraged by

the accession o a

new Pope, himsel ascientist, to resume

his researches into

the orbidden area:

the sunspots

Cardinal Barberini elected Pope,

taking the name Urban VIII. Galileo

dedicates The Assayer to him.

{ 1 6 2 2 }

1624Galileo goes to Rome, where he has

six audiences with the Pope Urban

VIII, who assures him that he could

write about the Copernican theory so

long as he treated it as a mathematical

hypothesis.

A complaint against Galileo’s Assayer

is lodged by an unknown person. The

complaint charges that the atom-

ism espoused in the book cannot be

squared with the ofcial church doc-

trine regarding the transubstantiationo the Eucharist. Ater an investigation

by the Inquisition, Galileo is cleared.



comment

22




23

1629

Galileo’s son Vincenzio and his wie

have a son. He is named Galileo ater

his grandather.

{ 1 6 2 5 - 1 6 2 8 }

1630

1631

Galileo obtains conditional permission

rom the Secretary o the Vatican to

publish his Dialogue o the Two Chie

World Systems. The plague strikes

Florence.

Through Grand Duke Ferdinand II

and his ambassador in Rome, Galileonegotiates with the Secretary o the

Vatican about the printing o the

Dialogue. The fnal result is that the

preace and ending would be approved

in Rome while the remainder o the

book would be checked and approved

by the Inquisition in Florence.



comment

24

Brecht dramatizes the stakes o Galileo’s theories, showing

how a new understanding o the universe could lead to social

revolution.




25

1632

Scene 10: During the

next decade Galileo’s

doctrine spreads

among the common

people, ballad singers

and pamphleteers

everywhere take upthe new ideas. In

the Carnival o 1632

many Italian cities

choose astronomy

as the theme or

their guilds’ carnival

processions

Printing o the Dialogue is com-

pleted. That Summer, Pope Urban

VII prohibits urther distribution o

the Dialogue. A special commission

is established to examine the text.

Based on the report by the commis-

sion, Urban VIII reers the case to theInquisition. The Pope himsel presides

over a meeting o the Inquisition

in which the decision is made to

summon Galileo to Rome.



comment

26

In order to help explain Pope Urban VIII’s decision to allow

the Inquisitor to threaten Galileo, Brecht raises an important truth:in the Dialogue, Galileo placed the voice o aith in the character

o Simplicio - not the clever one. This incensed the Pope, who had

previously deended Galileo.

Brecht dramatizes the stakes o Galileo’s theories, showing

how a new understanding o the universe could lead to social

revolution.




27

Scene 12: The Pope

Scene 13: Beore The

Inquisition, on June22nd,1633, Galileo

recants his doctrine

o the motion o the

Earth

In June, Urban VIII decides that Galileo

will be imprisoned or an indefniteperiod. With a ormal threat o torture,

Galileo is examined by the Inquisition.

The next day he is sentenced

to prison at the pleasure o theInquisition. In a ormal ceremony at

a the church o Santa Maria Sopra

Minerva, Galileo abjures his errors.

Scene 11: The

Inquisition sum-

mons the world-

amous scientist to

Rome

Galileo leaves Florence on 20 January.

Ater two weeks o plague-related quar-

antine just outside Rome, he arrives 13

February. The Pope allows Galileo to stay

with the Tuscan ambassador. From 12 to

30 April Galileo is detained and ques-

tioned in the building o the Inquisition,

in a comortable apartment but orbid-

den social contacts. A bargain is arranged

whereby Galileo will be allowed to plead

guilty to lesser charges or a lenient

sentence. On 30 April Galileo conesses

that he may have made the Copernican

case in the Dialogue too strong and oersto reute it in his next book.

1633



comment

28

Brecht keeps Virginia in the play to watch over Galileo,

though she actually died in the convent in 1634. In some produc-

tions, Virginia is a shrill, unorgiving fgure; many choose to stage

her as a sort o spy inorming the church o his activities. Because

in reality Galileo maintained a loving relationship with his daugh-

ter, we chose to stage her as an ally.




29

1634-1642

Scene 14: Galileo

Galilei lives in a

house in the country

near Florence, a

prisoner o The

Inquisition till he

dies. The ‘Discorsi.’

Galileo is allowed to return to his

villa in Arcetri, near Florence, where

he is under house arrest or the re-

mainder o his lie. In 1634, he suers

rom a painul hernia and requests

permission rom Rome to consult

physicians in Florence. The request isdenied, and Galileo is given to know

that urther requests such as this will

result in imprisonment.

In April, Maria Celeste (Virginia)

dies. Galileo continues his research,

writing his Discorsi and urthering

his studies on determining longitude

at sea.

By July 1637, he has lost vision in his

right eye; by 1638 he is completely

blind. He petitions the Inquisition to

be reed, but the petition is denied.

He is, however, allowed to transer tohis house in Florence in order to be

closer to his physicians. In March he

obtains permission to attend church

on religious holidays, provided that

he have no contact with others.

In July, his Discorsi is published in

The Netherlands.

Galileo dies in Arcetri on 8 January

1642.



30

1 5 0

0

1 6 0

0

1 7 0

0

1644Pope UrbanVIII dies.

Pages 2-25 (Events in the play) This page

1 7 0 0

1 8 0 0



31

1 8 0

0

1 9 0

0

2 0 0

0

1822Holy Officepermitspublication of books thatteach Earth's

motion.1835Galileo'sDialogueremoved fromthe Index.

1892University of Pisa awardsGalileo anhonorarydegree.

1893Pope Leo XII,cites St.Augustine toprove that theBible did notaim to teachscience.

1966Index of ProhibitedBooksabolishedfollowing the

Second VaticanCouncil.

1969NeilArmstrong andBuzz Aldrinwalk on themoon.

1989NASAlaunchesGalileospacecraft tostudy the

moons of Jupiter.

1992Pope John PaulII publiclyendorsesGalileo'sphilosophy.

1995Galileospacecraftreaches Jupiterto explore theMedicean

stars, nowknown as theGalileansatellites of Jupiter.

1971Apollo 15commanderDavid R. Scottproves Galileo'stheories on

falling bodies,dropping afalcon featherand a hammeron the lunarsurface; they falltogether.

1979Pope John Paul IIcalls for are-examinationof Galileo's case.

2009 GalCon at Caltech

1 9 0 0

2 0 0 0

1644-1995



32

Terrible is the disappoint-ment when men discover, or

think they discover, that they

have allen victims to an illusion,that the old is stronger than the

new, that the “acts” are against

them and not or them, that their

age–the new age–has not yet

arrived.~ Bertolt Brecht, Foreword to Lie o

Galileo, 1939



33

A dense and conicted text, Lie o Galileo stands as BertoltBrecht’s paean to a new age o reason. Yet while his Galileo is

dedicated to this human reason over blind authority, he winds

up a disillusioned man. Though we know that history ultimately

vindicates the scientist, Galileo is denied this knowledge and is

let unable to see the new age he helped bring into being. Progress

creeps along, nearly imperceptibly, but yet there is movement.

Considered one o his fnest plays, Lie o Galileo occupied

Brecht’s lie or nearly twenty years. Its complexity stems in

part rom the social transormations during Brecht’s writing and

re-writing. Brecht’s frst drat o the play, entitled The Earth Moves,

came about in November o 1938 during his exile rom Germany.

Like Galileo, he believed in the capacity o human reason to

remake the world and viewed his own era as the dark times. The

new age Brecht believed would arrive only did so in extremely

bloody fts and starts.

Western Europe’s leaders had by then capitulated to Hitler

with the Munich agreement which sacrifced Czechoslovakia to

Nazi control in the vain hope o staving o a second World War.

Perhaps even more disappointing to Brecht, a committed commu-

nist, was the development in the Soviet Union o Stalin’s Gulags.This system brutally persecuted over a million Soviet citizens in a

“Great Purge:” little more than an imposition o totalitarian order

on the nation. Everywhere, it seemed, vicious authority trampled

humanity and its reason. “Am I already lying down or the night

i l l u s i o n s o ft h e n e x t n e w a g e



34

and thinking,” he asks himsel in the Foreword, “when I think o

the morning, the one that has passed, in order to avoid thinkingo the one to come? Is that why I occupy mysel in that epoch o

the owering o the arts and sciences three hundred years ago? I

hope not. These images o the morning and the night are mislead-

ing. Happy times do not come in the same way as a morning

ollows a night.”

In 1941, Brecht immigrated to the United States, settling in

the Los Angeles area. Here he met actor Charles Laughton, with

whom he collaborated on a second version o the play. Commonly

called the Laughton or American version, it was essentially a new

play crated with Laughton in mind or the title role. In 1945, the

United States dropped the frst atomic bomb on the Japanese city

o Hiroshima, three days later dropping the second on Nagasaki,

bringing an end to WWII. Such an horrifc display o scientifc

innovation clearly colored Brecht’s understanding o his play’smessage. He layered onto the text a contemplation o the ethics o

scientifc inquiry, cautioning against research that ails to consider

its human consequences. Reerencing this additional meaning,

Brecht wrote “Galileo’s crime [his recantation] can be regarded

as the ‘original sin’ o modern natural sciences...The atom bomb

is, both as a technical and as a social phenomenon, the classi-

cal end-product o his contribution to science and his ailure tocontribute to society.” In the Laughton version, which opened in

July 1947, Galileo links himsel to the uture course o physics in

the atomic age; he notes that giving way to coercion - whether

the threat o torture or the thrill o discovering in the name o the

greater good - distances science rom humanity, which can only

result in a “universal howl o horror.” A howl not unlike that o a

country under nuclear attack.



35

In September 1947, Brecht returned to Europe ater ap-

pearing beore the House Un-American Activities Committee,although he had been preparing or his move since March. In 1953

he again began to revise Lie o Galileo, translating the American

version into an expanded German version that once again

contemplated the notion o a new age o reason. In 1955, Brecht

prepared to stage this third incarnation - a translated version o

which we use in our production here at Caltech - with the Berliner

Ensemble, but died on 14 August 1956 beore its execution.

This production urther heightened Brechtian ideas on the

social responsibilities o scientists and the general need to resist

dogmatic authority. The parallels in the play to the atrocities o

Stalin and the continued degradation o the communist ideology

in practice made it among the most successul o all his plays in

Eastern Bloc countries. Brecht certainly did not intend or it to be

such a harsh critique o communism; in act would have resistedthis idea being imposed on his text. However there are just as

certainly Cold War-era resonances about the imposition o a new

age that results in merely a re-assertion o the old authoritarian-

ism, clothed as a new age o rationality.

In all its various versions, Brecht considered Lie o Galileo

as an image o the dawning o the new age o inquiry and ratio-nality. That this age, as conceived by Brecht, was colored by the

unolding o the historical events - both tragic and hopeul - dur-

ing its writing and rewriting only adds poignancy to the painul

progress o humanity. Though progress does not ollow discovery

as reliably as morning ollows night, there is always movement.

~ Karen Jean Martinson, Ph.D.



36

I art refects lie, it does sowith special mirrors

~ Bertolt Brecht, A Short Organum orthe Theatre, No. 73



37

Bertolt Brecht dedicated his entire career to re-imaginingwhat theatre was, how it worked, and what impact it could

have. Not content with the realism o traditional theatre, which

purported to hold a mirror to nature to show the world as it is,

Brecht instead strove to create a new orm o theatre - what he

called epic theatre - that would prod its audience to question

why the world is this particular way. He developed an arsenal

o techniques designed to jar spectators out o an emotionalrelationship with the characters presented onstage so that they

could engage with them intellectually. Rather than being swept

along by the story, Brecht wanted his audience to remain apart

rom it. Whereas traditional theatre seeks to create a convincing

illusion that passes or an harmonious real, epic theatre relies

on contradiction, disruption, and the rank acknowledgement

o its own alseness because such discord reminds the audience

that social relations - whether onstage or in the world outside

o the theatre - always involves choices. This is Brecht’s special

mirror, one that reveals the constructedness o social orces that

previously seemed immutable, one that allows or interventions,

one that shows society as having been made by humanity and

thereore able to be torn down and remade into something new.

That Brecht chose to write a play on the new age o thescientifc inquiry ushered in by Galileo Galilei is hardly surprising;

m i r r o r s a n ds p e c i a l m i r r o r s



38

he repeatedly reers to us as living in the scientifc age and urges

that reason - the sort o sensuous, pleasurable intellect his Galileotriumphs - be brought to the theatre. Indeed, his main complaint

against traditional theatrical orms is their reliance on empathy

and emotion. Brecht asserted that this urge toward empathy “has

been ully able to transmute our optimistic riends, whom we

have called the children o the scientifc era, into a cowed, credu-

lous, hypnotized mass,” (Short Organum no. 29). Brecht equated

empathy with passivity; it eectively shut o the minds o thespectators, who watched theatre as i it were something being

done to them. In contrast, he wanted his audience members to

adopt the critical distance his Galileo models. Brecht wanted

people to turn a skeptic’s eye on accepted explanations o the

social world.

Brecht coined the term Verremdungseekt to describe how

the epic theatre should aect its audience. Oten translated asthe Alienation-eect, Brecht utilized strategies that distanced or

deamiliarized the subject presented. The V-eekt was “designed

to ree socially-conditioned phenomena rom that stamp o

amiliarity which protects them against our grasp today,” (Short

Organum no. 43). Brecht acknowledged that what appears most

natural to us oten escapes our interrogation; we cease to see

what is closest to us. Skewing productions away rom immediaterecognition, we can view social relations with the critical eye to

create positive change. Several o these strategies are evident in

this production:

Episodic presentation of great time periods• : Brecht

divides Lie o Galileo into discrete scenes, each o which

has its own structure. Though the scenes clearly relate to

each other and work together to create the overall mean-

ings o the play, they also stand as independent elements



39

o the story. As Brecht notes, “the individual episodes have

to be knotted together in such a way that the knots areeasily noticed,” (Short Organum no. 67). This dramaturgi-

cal structure - the display o the knots - makes visible the

playwright’s hand in crating the story, preventing us rom

seeing it as merely the retelling o history. The play also

spans a large amount o time, some 33 years. Galileo ages

and goes blind, Andrea grows rom a boy to a man, other

characters enter only to disappear later.

The use of titles:• Brecht uses titles or his scenes to

emphasize that they are set o rom each other, thereby

disrupting the ow o the well-made play. Many times,

these titles describe what will happen in the scene to pre-

vent an emotional response to the action. For example, in

Scene 13, we are inormed that Galileo recants his doctrine

on the motion o the Earth, although the characters inthe scene do not know the outcome o his imprisonment.

Knowing o his recantation, we hear Andrea’s deense o

him dierently. When Andrea avers that Galileo would die

rather than recant, we are able to contemplate his naivete

rather than eel his passion. Brecht urther asserted that

each title should include its own social point, that they

rame the scene as a sort o moral tableau.

The use of songs:• Songs were another disruption Brecht

requently employed. He stated that these songs should

be marked o rom the rest o the text so that they resist

smooth incorporation into it. In Lie o Galileo, the songs

occur at the top o the scenes, immediately ollowing the

announcement o the titles. They oten take a position in

relation to the action o the scene, as in Scene 4. Through

the titles, we are inormed that Galileo’s discoveries will



41

audience is allowed to “take pleasure in understanding

things so that we can interere,” (Short Organum no. 46).

“Unnaturalness” in acting style:• O all o Brecht’s

V-eekt techniques, Brecht’s unnaturalness is among the

most daunting or actors to achieve and the most difcult

or audiences to discern. Modern audiences are so ac-

customed to seeing realism on stage, flm, and television

that Brecht’s unnaturalness oten appears simply as “bad

acting.” Brecht believed that an aected unnaturalness

prevents the audience rom orming emotional attach-

ments with characters onstage. This emotional audience

involvement is the goal o most modern productions, but

Brecht has other goals in mind or how an audience should

approach what it sees. By making the acting more obvious

and less involving, “the spectator’s intellect [remains] ree

and highly mobile,” (Short Organum no. 40). In other words,actors should constantly remind spectators that they are

seeing a play.

In this production, we incorporate an awareness o the

audience that incorporates spectators into its meaning-making.

In most scenes, actors seem to step out o the world o the play to

deliver particularly relevant passages directly to the audience – q.v.Galileo’s prophecy that astronomy will be discussed in the mar-

ketplace in Scene 1, Federzoni’s condemnation o Mucius in Scene

9, Galileo’s fnal monologue in Scene 14. Actors even implicate

the audience in their monologues: when the Cardinal Inquisitor

declares “These people doubt everything” in Scene 12, he gestures

directly to the scientifcally-minded members o the Caltech com-

munity, branding them as rabble who must be controlled.

By rejecting empathy, Brecht activated the audience rom



42

the position o passive spectator to that o engaged participant.

Brecht believed that theatre-going should be entertaining, trust-ing that audiences are intelligent and enjoy the reedom o

interpretation the V-eekt allowed them. He celebrated the joy

that intellectual engagement oers, both in the theatre and in the

world outside o it:

That is to say, our representations must take second place

to what is represented, men’s lie together in society; and the

pleasure elt in their perection must be converted into the

higher pleasure elt when the rules emerging rom this lie in

society are treated as imperect and provisional. In this way the

theatre leaves its spectators productively disposed even ater the

spectacle is over. Let us hope that their theatre may allow them

to enjoy as entertainment that terrible and never-ending labour

which should ensure their maintenance, together with the terror

o their unceasing transormation. Let them here produce theirown lives in the simplest way; or the simplest way o living is in

art (Short Organum no. 77).

~ Karen Jean Martinson, Ph.D.

galileo dramaturgy booklet

Documents