The Starry Messenger

The Starry Messenger" is inspired by the Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei and his famous and seminal book "Sidereus Nuncius".

The book was published just over 400 years ago in 1610 in Venice. Galileo Galilei's discoveries contradicted the Aristotelean cosmology – the earth being the centre of the universe with the sun and the planets circling around it – and caused something of a stir.

But in this version by Donald Kitt, the meaning of Galilei's discovery (that the earth and thus the human beings are not the centre of the universe) is transformed from this undeniable fact into a lively, humorous and thought-provoking theatre performance.

In Kitt's performance we are confronted with the modern human being, previously the Lord of the Universe, now suddenly finding himself small as a fly, alone in the space of infinity.

Text by Ulrik Skeel