Playwright: Bertolt Brecht
At: The Side Project Theatre Company at the Side Studio, 1520 W. Jarvis
Phone: ( 773 ) 973-2150; $15
Runs through: Oct 15
The men who drafted our constitution mandated separation of church and state so that what happened to Galileo in 1633 could never happen in America: rulers who govern by permission of those they rule, rather than by divine privilege, have no reason to dread revisions in God's policies, nor are church leaders responsible for the guidance of administrative and commercial bodies. But the Side Project thinks we need to be reminded of this in 2005 and thus have chosen to open their season with Bertolt Brecht's Galileo.
Like the deity his enemies feared he would unseat, Galileo was many things to many people: Historically, he was the astronomer who proposed that the earth orbited around the sun, a notion that kings and churchmen feared would upset the entire social structure on which their power rested. To Brecht, Galileo's persecution was a parable of the Big Boys oppressing the Little ( though villains abound at all levels in his play ) , and Charles Laughton, who commandeered a new adaptation for his film, saw it as a study of the scientist as tragic hero.
Side Project director Christopher J. Berens is wise to use the Laughton version—the most articulate and least didactic of the translations—further adding his own elements by designating the various scenes 'hymns' in the playbill. Certainly Mark Winston's and Nick Keenan's music increase our sense of wonder at the weighty concepts discussed by the 17th-century eggheads. And Apollo Mark Weaver's scenic design packs an array of locales into the tiny Side Studio without ever seeming to cramp the personnel—which includes a David Herzog marionette—forced to maneuver thereon.
None of this would matter, however, were it not for an acting ensemble, led by Jeff Duhigg as Galileo Galilei, thoroughly versed in its text and possessing the stamina to sustain characters ( at a visual range that allows us to detect the slightest facial tic ) for the nearly three hours of this brain exercise. The rewards are well worth the patience, however. 'Unhappy is the land that breeds no hero,' laments a disillusioned acolyte to which Galileo replies, 'Unhappy is the land that NEEDS a hero'. What land is OURS, nowadays?