Trap Door’s Galileo points out our own Inquisition

I am absolutely certain that when Trap Door Theatre set its season last year they had no idea the kind of anti scientific underworld we would be living in when Brecht’s WW2 era script would be brought thrillingly to stage by Brechtian master Max Truax. But here we are, and this intimate and edgy production is at once a cautionary tale and thoughtful reflection on how dangerous new ideas can be.

David Lovejoy as Galileo is suitably lost in his own world and his brilliant mathematical mind (which is credited with laying the groundwork for the entire field of classical mechanics in physics)  A polymath, he was not easily understood by his peers. He took students and teaching posts to fund incessant experiments and observations.  In this telling his daughter Virginia (played by the luminous Genvieve Corkery) literally orbits him. Joan Nahid as the constant Inquisitor is exhausting.   Galileo would eventually go on to be threatened with torture if he did not renounce his findings, and spent his elderhood in house arrest, finally sending his most important text to Holland for printing beyond the reach of Italian censorship. 

What stands out in this play is the insistence of the society around Galileo in denying science, denying observable fact, denying anything new or interesting, in favor of the status quo of a biblical and rather primitive understanding of how the universe works. It is completely relevant in a society that is back to using horse deworming and vitamins to treat serious disease outbreaks. There are severe punishments for anyone who speaks a truth counter to the party line. Sounds familiar, right? 

Trapdoor productions are an adventure: you have to slip down a gangway to discover this tiny theatre behind a restaurant.  Set designer Merje Veski has chosen to enlist large old tv sets to represent the burden of knowledge and once they come on stage, you are exhorted to stay in your seats for the entire 90 minutes without intermission lest you trip on a cord! It gives one a feeling that you are witnessing something clandestine: the resistance to anti- intellectualism perhaps.  

Brecht’s play is not often revived but maybe this production can change that: it’s an important story.  Galileo is on stage at Trap Door Theatre, 1655 W. Cortland Street in Chicago, Thursdays through Sundays through June 14. 2025. For tickets and information go to https://trapdoortheatre.com/galileo/

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