Copenhagen: Not So Foreign After All
By Justin Sondak in Arts & Entertainment on Sep 6, 2005 7:37PM
German physicist Werner Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle states that the more we know about a particle’s velocity, the less we know about its position and vice versa. Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, now playing in a deftly staged Timeline Theatre production, explores a similar uncertainty surrounding the physicist’s life.
Heisenberg made his breakthrough discovery in 1927 after a three-year collaboration of sorts in Copenhagen with his colleague and father figure, Danish physicist Niels Bohr. When Heisenberg returned to Copenhagen for a conference in 1941, the highly esteemed university professor then working with the Nazi government dropped in on his old friend Bohr. The pair found themselves on opposite sides of a World War, both contemplating atomic fission as a source of energy and mass destruction. The half-Jewish Bohr was also contemplating his own family's survival and whether his old friend had become an untrustworthy tool of the Third Reich.
Copenhagen tackles the peculiar circumstances of this meeting, how it would impact the course of history and science and why it even occurred in the first place. The play begins with Heisenberg, Bohr, and Bohr’s wife Margrethe posing these questions from the afterlife. Frayn imagines them writing one more paper to explain their lives and that one peculiar night. In the course of two acts and three “drafts,” the trio will explore the intellectual, political, and personal consequences of their friendship and sometimes rivalry.
The task for the actors here is considerable: to internalize these characters along with four decades of scientific progress. This is likely the only production in town with a 25-page study guide and in-depth lobby display; the hard-working dramaturg is to be commended. Director Louis Contey does a fine job integrating this massive history into the production without losing sight of the story and performances. The cast fared well illuminating the scientific process; the occasional stumbling over the more complicated elaborations didn’t detract from three fine performances. Terry Hamilton (Bohr) and P.J. Powers (Heisenberg) skillfully and sensitively convey their thrilling and turbulent relationship. They recognize their characters as brilliant men, yes, but also as flawed human beings at turns hurtful and compassionate. Isabel Liss brings appropriate gravity and restraint to Margrethe, whose emotional reserve and well-placed interrogations hold the discussion together and help connect the layman with concepts they may not have considered since high school.
If you’re put off by the prospect of three historical figures discussing the evolution of physics, rest assured that Copenhagen is much more. The show takes a spellbinding look at the creative process, the ego-management involved, and how small gestures and brave minds help shape life and death decisions.
Copenhagen plays at the Timeline Theatre, 615 West Wellington, Chicago, Thursdays and Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 4 and 8pm, Sundays at 2pm through October 9. Tickets are $25, $30 for the Sept 15 “Theater Thursday” performance, which includes pre- and post-show receptions. For more information and to purchase tickets, call 773-281-8463 or visit www.timelinetheatre.com.