STAGE REVIEW : SOUTH COASTS’ ‘GALILEO’ PROVES A LITTLE SUNNY

Legend says that when Charles Laughton was rehearsing Brecht’s “Galileo,” his pockets had to be sewed shut to keep him from scratching himself in too earthy a manner. Earthiness is not a problem in Martin Benson’s staging of the play for South Coast Repertory.

Take the moment when Galileo (Dana Elcar) demonstrates to a boy apprentice (Kris Barton) that it’s the Earth that moves and not the sun. Brecht calls for the actor to lift boy and chair, and deposit them on the other side of the room. Here it’s a rolling chair, whose casters Elcar must first carefully unlock--since it’s a raked stage--before he can push the apprentice into position.

Any sense of Galileo as an impulsive man gets lost. But Benson and Elcar don’t seem to be interested in pursuing that side of his character. This is, rather, Galileo as Friar Tuck, or maybe Friar Laurence. Mild (though sometimes peeved); devoted to his experiments; unable to conceive that other men won’t rejoice when the truth of the universe is pointed out to them.

“I am a loyal son of the church!” he tells the Inquisition, and truly seems surprised that anyone would think otherwise. This is pleasant, but not nearly as interesting as Brecht’s Galileo, a volatile character with sharp corners and big appetites. Also, like Brecht, a fairly devious character with an acute sense of self-survival.

We wouldn’t think of persecuting Elcar’s Galileo. We’d give him a grant. Which makes it hard for the South Coast audience to put itself in the place of his persecutors. How much more immediate it would have been to present Galileo as a real threat to the Establishment of his day--as, so to speak, a brilliant malcontent in the research division whose contribution to the corporation may not be worth the trouble he stirs up.

The choice here is to be smooth and safe, and “Galileo” comes off as a modern classic that leave one “something to think about” rather than striking an inescapable chord of recognition. The first act is particularly smug, with Galileo’s ecclesiastical and secular opponents (Hal Landon Sr. as the Doge of Venice and Jack Holland as a doddering Cardinal, for example) coming off as total fools.

The action picks up with the entrance of two clerics who know how to argue--Richard Doyle as Cardinal Bellarmine and John-David Keller as Cardinal Barberini, soon to be the Pope. Keller’s especially good in the cheerful maliciousness of his intelligence--a son of Rome’s she-wolf, indeed.

Later, Hal Landon Jr.’s Cardinal Inquisitor projects an equally creditable fearsomeness under his sunny smile. These men, one feels, would do anything for their cause. Elcar’s lamblike Galileo obviously won’t survive more than a couple of rounds with them.

John Ellington’s Little Monk presents the Church in a less worldly aspect. His argument against Galileo’s revolutionary theory is based on concern for the peace of mind of the peasant, who has little in his life but the sense of being in the middle of the universe, warned by the love of God. Ellington presents his case sincerely and is truly bothered when Elcar suggests that this is another way of saying: Let the peasant tend to the plow while his betters attend to the universe.

Benson’s staging shows a mind of its own in the Feast of Fools scene, which is pursued in a more sinister way than Brecht may have had in mind. Giving the truth to the people has--we see here--a dangerous side to it. Having been brutalized by their betters, the people are not lambs. (Ron Boussom’s unshaved, hollow-eyed Ballad Singer epitomizes them.)

Here, SCR’s “Galileo” comes to life. Elsewhere, it’s sanitized Brecht, with everything the senses could want (sumptuous costumes by Robert Blackman, pungent original music by Diane King, etc.) but without an edge to sharpen the mind on. Whether Brecht was or wasn’t a great playwright, he wasn’t a nice playwright. This production kills him with caution.

‘GALILEO’

Brecht’s play, at South Coast Repertory. Translation Howard Brenton. Director Martin Benson. Setting Susan Tuohy. Costumes Robert Blackman. Lighting Tom Ruzika. Original music Diane King. Production manager Paul Hammond. Stage manager Bonnie Lorenger. With Ron Boussom, Dana Elcar, Kris Barton, Martin Noyes, Martha McFarland, Tom Shelton, James E. Brodhead, Richard Doyle, Don Took, Hal Landon, Sr., Anni Long, Walter Daly, George Pelling, George Woods, Hal Landon Jr., Jack Holland, Art Koustik, Greg Atkins, Gary Weissbrot, Steve Beazley, Nigel Neale, Donnie Jeffcoat, MacDougall Harper, Betsy Klingelhoefer, Melissa Smith, Nathan Adler, William Bartram, Wortham Krimmer, John Ellington, John-David Keller, Julie Kuhlman. Plays Tuesdays-Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sundays at 7:30 p.m., with Saturday-Sunday matinees at 2:30. Closes Oct. 13. 655 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa. (714) 957-4033.