Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Copenhagen

From: "will stackman" profwlll@yahoo.com

Subject: Quicktake - "Copenhagen" by Michael Frayn

Date: Wed, July 26, 11:16 PM

Quicktake on COPENHAGEN

     When Michael Frayn's Tony winning drama "Copenhagen" toured through several seasons ago it received respectful attention but not much comment. With the nuclear issue once again in the news, not to mention harbingers of WWW III--and possible Armageddon-- in the Middle East, this historical mystery/morality seems much more relevant. With only three actors and a simple elegant setting by Judy Stacier, Diego Arciniegas has once again done a firstrate production, equal to anything seen by any local theatre so far this season.

    Barry Press plays the father of modern atomic theory, Neil Bohr, trapped in Nazi-occupied Denmark along with his wife Margrethe played by Suzanne Nitter. It's 1941 and half-Jewish Bohr can see the writing on the wall. His former student, Werner Heisenberg played by Gabriel Kuttner, now chair of Nuclear Physics at Leipzig, has come on a formal visit.Bohr learns that Heisenberg, largely responsible for quantum mechanics, whose name is attached to its "Uncertainty Principle," is in charge of Germany's program to exploit nuclear fission, presumably to build a Bomb. Exactly what the two spoke of during this brief visit has been the source of much speculation, especially since each man gave vague differing reports of the event after the war. Frayn's weaves several conjectures into a two act text which circles, like electrons in orbit around a nucleus, around issues like scientific responsibility and patriotism, in an attention grabbing script.

     All three actors are wearing discrete headmikes, which frees up the blocking considerably, allowing Kuttner on occasion to circle the audience, and the two men to be seen back in the garden but still heard clearly. There's a complex score prepared by Steven Barkhimer and Anthony Phelps finds new uses for Publick's slowly improving lighting. This may not be light summer entertainment like "The Beard of Avon", it's partner in rep through the first week in September, but "Copenhagen" is perhaps the strongest and most intellectually stimulating on this summer.



"Copenhagen" by Michael Frayn, July 26 - Sept. 10

Publick Theatre at Herter Park

Soldiers Field Rd. Brighton, (617) 782 - 4525
Publick Theatre

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