The Masqueraders’ Galileo
Bertolt Brecht’s key question in his play Galileo — whether society can stand on doubt and not on faith — refers to the astronomer’s trial by the Inquisition for his heretical theory of heliocentricity. The question had parallel relevance on Galileo’s opening night at the Naval Academy, just hours after terrorist attacks in Paris. Billed as an exploration of the scientist’s responsibility to the world, this show is an apt undertaking for the Masqueraders, a troupe of our nation’s future scientists and leaders in an age of technological progress and pandemic regress. The script sparkles with timely aphorisms, such as This is the millennium of doubt, and Truth is the daughter of time, not authority.
Longtime director Christy Stanlake picked a supernova for her final Masqueraders production. Rich in spectacle and drama, with live musical interludes and supertitles summarizing each scene, this historical drama is engaging and understandable — despite a platoon of multicast actors in Mahan Hall’s grievous acoustics.
From Padua to Venice, Florence and Rome, the play follows Galileo (Jett Watson) in his visionary orbit of honor and derision. Rather than presenting a straight-up hero, this post-World War II revision of the play shows a protagonist of nuanced character.
There’s Galileo the brilliant astronomer and teacher to Ludovico (Tim Burnett), Sagredo (Leith Daghistani), Andrea (Megan Rausch) and Fulgonzio (Chris Hudson), a little monk of humble origin …
Galileo the debater opposite University Curator Priuli (Orion Rollins), the Cardinal Inquisitor (Daghistani) and Pope Urban VIII (John Mendez), an enlightened scholar turned traitor to reason …
Galileo the sycophant appealing to nine-year-old Prince Cosimo de Medici (Josh Ryan) …
Galileo the egotist, glutton and opportunist, profiting from the telescope as if it were his own invention …
Galileo the manipulator (the shortest distance between two points may be a crooked line) …
Galileo the victim, who recants his revolutionary theory and is nevertheless sentenced to house-arrest for the final nine years of his life …
Galileo, father to Virginia (Clara Navarro), a simple girl of simple aspirations whose engagement to Ludovico is broken on account of her father’s notoriety.
The costumes are spectacular, most notably in the April Fool’s revelry, a fantastic parade of eye candy and garbled mayhem staged to illustrate public derision of Galileo for his outlandish theory. The sparse but majestic set is period save for a massive globe whose modern depiction of the world somehow slipped by a roomful of future navigators. As for the acting, this is a solid student production in which Watson impresses in the title role and Daghistani finesses opposing roles as his best friend and worst foe. There is even a delightful clique of children.
In a clash of scientific suppositions and religious superstitions — a debate that continues to this day — it is good to be reminded that there’s no such thing as a book of science that only one man can write. We are not, as it turns out, the center the universe. Yet to see Brecht’s depiction of Galileo, one might almost think that he believed he was.