Galileo Reviews

Chicago Reader - Highly Recommended

"...The tension between knowledge and power has always been the animating force in human society. The pendulum swings this way and that. It often crushes those it should lift. No one wants to give up what they've got, no matter how wrong-headed or ill-gotten. When someone comes along and says everything you've always believed is wrong, it rarely goes down easily."

Chicago Stage and Screen - Highly Recommended

"...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."

Around The Town Chicago - Highly Recommended

"...As the new production at Trap Door Theater directed by Max Truax and based on a 1947 adaptation by Charles Laughton demonstrates, all those things are still true. Brecht famously did not intend for his works to be escapist, but instead to help his audience make sense of their immediate concerns, and this Galileo is a prime example of even over eighty years later, his plays seem to be ripped from the headlines."

Chicago Theatre Review - Highly Recommended

"...If you love Brecht, go experience this production. If you hate Brecht, go experience this production. If you have never been to the theater in your life, or if you live in it, go experience this production. Galileo at the Trap Door Theatre is a brilliant feast for the mind and soul; the concept so masterfully realized it is three-dimensional poetry manifested. The ensemble under the direction of Max Truax brings the script and its timely messages to life in a pinnacle of Brechtian tradition, brought home with powerful modern symbolism."

Buzz Center Stage - Recommended

"..."Galileo" written in 1938 by German playwright Bertolt Brecht, tells the straightforward story of the 17th century physicist and astronomer's run-in with church authorities for asserting that the earth revolved around the sun. For this Galileo, played with Brechtian finesse by Trap Door's David Lovejoy, was hauled before the Roman Inquisition, and threatened with torture until he recanted."

Chicago Theater and Arts - Recommended

"...Trap Door Theatre's presentation of "Galileo" stays close to the heart of Bertolt Brecht's script but is a challenging and thought-provoking interpretation."

NewCity Chicago - Recommended

"...Under resident director Max Truax, Trap Door offers a brilliant interpretation of this play-intelligent, gutsy and moving. Like other Trap Door productions, it is strange and surreal, with glowing television sets, the sounds of sitcom laughter, a woman in a blindfold and a backdrop made of sheets of dark paper covered with Galileo's work. The scene design by Merje Veski, costumes by Rachel Sypniewski and sound by Dan Poppen help to create a feeling of both unreality and danger. But like the nakedness-the weirdness is not weird for its own sake but clarifies the play's ideas about conformity and ignorance."