Play speculates on secret meeting in Copenhagen
By Daily Bruin Staff
Nov. 20, 2001 9:00 p.m.
 TILDEN Len Cariou stars as physicist
Niels Bohr in "Copenhagen," which opens at the Wilshire Theater on
November 25.
By Siddarth Puri
Daily Bruin Contributor
1941: The world was living in horror as Hitler’s reign of
terror still continued in Germany. Filled with surreptitious plans
of world dominance, Hitler’s regime had created the A-bomb
project headed by Werner Heisenberg. Though Heisenberg had the
knowledge to make an A-bomb, he never gave the information to the
Nazis. This may have been the result of Heisenberg’s 1941
visit to occupied Denmark to see his physicist mentor, Niels Bohr.
The clandestine meeting between the two created a stir with
scientists as well as historians that has lasted until today.
Out of the gaping uncertainty of the events of that meeting
arises Michael Frayn’s “Copenhagen.” Recounting
the covert meeting between Heisenberg and Bohr, two longtime
friends who were on opposite sides of WWII, the play jumps back and
forth from the September 1941 encounter to an
“afterlife” where the characters, now dead, discuss
their past and examine the reasons behind Heisenberg’s trip
to see his half Jewish mentor. Speculations on the purpose include
everything from Heisenberg using Bohr for information to help the
Nazis build an atomic bomb to Heisenberg passing information to
Bohr on the status of the German nuclear program.
“The play is about friendship, loyalty, ethics, and
morality on many different levels,” said Molly Hayden, the
National Marketing Director for “Copenhagen.”
“You see friendship and careers discussed between the
characters’ love and hate relationship. It’s the type
of play that makes people sit up and learn and walk out feeling a
little smarter.”
The Tony Award-winning play stars Len Cariou as Niels Bohr,
Mariette Hartley as Bohr’s wife Margrethe and Hank Stratton
as Werner Heisenberg as the new cast for the North American
premiere. These actors are anything but strangers to the major
entertainment scene. Cariou won the 1979 Tony Award for his
portrayal of the title character in Stephen Sondheim’s
“Sweeney Todd.” Emmy Award-winning Hartley was the
one-time co-host of CBS-TV’s “The Morning
Program” and is most widely recognized for her endearing
performances in the television commercials for Polaroid. Finally,
Stratton has been touring the country with the national tour of
“Cabaret.”
“The actors are unbelievable,” Hayden said.
“They have done incredible research into the lives of the
characters and times and have adapted the personas of the
characters perfectly. They needed to know what they were speaking
about on stage so they studied the physics of both
characters.”
Not only does the play couple an event cloaked in the veil of
time and a unique cast of characters, but it also plays off the
setting of the stage. While most stage recreations are downsized
when not performed on Broadway, this stage is an exact replica of
the Broadway stage in size. The stage is shaped like an atom and
the center is lit to resemble a nucleus as the characters walk
around the center of the stage acting like orbiting electrons and
standing in the center like neutrons.
Furthermore, the stage has gallery seats on the side, which
allows avid theatergoers to sit peering down onto the stage like
students listening to their professors at a lecture. This unique
stage set, created by director Michael Blakemore, tries to take the
play to another level. He makes the stage a defining attribute of
both main characters, thereby adding another perspective to the
scenes and combining arts and science.
Though the play is an interpretation of what the author believed
happened in that secret meeting in September of 1941, many people
in the scientific world as well as the art world await the release
of Bohr’s private documents.
When Neils Bohr died he had his private documents withheld until
after his death. These papers are in the hands of the archivist
now, but will hopefully be released at the end of this year,
according to Hayden.
These papers may shed light on the meeting between Heisenberg
and Bohr and finally tell the true tale of the fascinating
September visit.
This play captures the true essence of the “uncertainty
principle” in a different respect. The play is essentially
not about what happened but about what didn’t happen in the
meeting. Despite Heisenberg’s brilliance, the Germans
didn’t make the bomb. This play questions why he didn’t
and offers a plausible answer.
“The whole play makes you think because of the subject
intricacies,” Hayden said. “From what goes on behind
the scenes to the big question: does a scientist have a moral right
to produce atomic weapons? The play questions if Heisenberg
withheld information about the bomb from the Nazi party to make
sure the Nazi’s didn’t get a hold of it.”
THEATER: “Copenhagen” will be at
the
Wilshire Theatre from Nov. 25 until Jan. 6. Performances are
Tuesday through Friday at 8 p.m.; Saturday 2 and 8 p.m. and Sunday
2 and 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 through $60. For more information
call (714) 740-7878.
