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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
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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.
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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
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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)
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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
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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.
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historical record brecht’s version
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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.
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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.
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historical record brecht’s version
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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.
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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
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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.
historical record brecht’s version
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12
Brecht keeps Virginia with Galileo or the entirety o the play.
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historical record brecht’s version
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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.
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historical record brecht’s version
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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
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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.
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historical record brecht’s version
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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.
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historical record brecht’s version
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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 }
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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.
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historical record brecht’s version
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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.
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historical record brecht’s version
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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.
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24
Brecht dramatizes the stakes o Galileo’s theories, showing
how a new understanding o the universe could lead to social
revolution.
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historical record brecht’s version
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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.
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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.
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historical record brecht’s version
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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
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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.
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historical record brecht’s version
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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.
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1644Pope UrbanVIII dies.
Pages 2-25 (Events in the play) This page
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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I art refects lie, it does sowith special mirrors
~ Bertolt Brecht, A Short Organum orthe Theatre, No. 73
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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