STARS AND THEATRE. FROM RENAISSANCE STAGE ASTROLOGERS TO ASTRONOMY–FLAVORED SCIENCE PLAYS

Abstract

Theatre has a longstanding and surprising tradition of familiarity with the starry night and its investigators

but alas, since Ariosto’s Negromante, Della Porta’s Lo Astrologo and the many comedias of the Golden Age of

Spanish Theatre the adepts of the stars are almost invariably portrayed as tricksters, buffoons and greedy

cheaters pretending to be experts of astrology and magic. Comedy is everywhere in modern Europe the only

genre associated to such characters and to the study of the universe, at least until the 19th century, when

farcical dramaturgy is complemented by some minor tragedies (e.g. Nievo’s pioneering Galilei, Andreev’s To

the Stars, Gsantner’s Tolternicus and Ogilvie’s Hypatia) that slowly pave the way to 20th century dramas

centered on science (the prototype is Brecht’s Life of Galileo). I propose a voyage through the history of

theatrical astrologers/astronomers tracing the evolution of the complex relationship between stars and stage

and at the same time analyzing the ascent of the contemporary science–play format where the dramaturgy

either inflates becoming verbose, philosophical and sometimes ironical or tends to dissolve in a multisensory

experience of cosmos, history and society called Postdramatic Theatre.