MENOCCHIO world premiere written and directed by Lillian Groag November 1—December 21, 2002 Thrust Stage running time: 2 hours and 45minutes, including one 15 minute intermission setting: the Friuli region of Italy, 1585—1600 “And as I told my wife, if God didn't want us to use our minds He wouldn't have put them there, on our heads. And so not using them would be like a—well, an insult to His Great Majesty for the waste of so great a gift: the gift of thought, and therefore, a sin. Maybe even a mortal sin. Don't you think?” Inspired by historical fact, Menocchio traces a simple man's search for enlightenment and truth. In delightfully rustic 17th century Italy, the miller Menocchio ponders the astonishing mysteries of the universe. As his musings grow more absurd—and strikingly similar to our contemporary views—family and neighbors begin to faint and flee, and he catches the unwanted attention of the Church's Inquisitors. Lillian Groag (author of the 1998 Berkeley Rep production Magic Fire) brings her inimitably comic intelligence to this exploration of free speech and intellectual freedom.