Theater, scientific scholarship come together in ‘Copenhagen’

German atomic physicist Werner Heisenberg took one strange and mysterious trip to visit Niels Bohr, his Danish friend and former mentor, in Copenhagen during the fall of 1941.

What, Bohr wondered, did the newly appointed head of the German atomic program come all the way to Copenhagen to discuss? What caused the two scientists to fall out so abruptly and vehemently? What was the nature and purpose of the German atomic program?

Playwright Michael Frayn ruminates on what may have been the substance of the visit in the Tony Award-winning Copenhagen, at the Madison Repertory Theater on Thursday, Oct. 22-Sunday, Nov. 14.

The Rep is producing the play under the auspices of the College of Letters and Science (L&S), and its departments of Physics, Theatre and Drama, Philosophy, History of Science, and Science and Technology Studies. The project is intended to inaugurate the World Year of Physics in 2005 and the centennial of Einstein’s “Miraculous Year,” in which he published several seminal papers that revolutionized the study of the physical world.

Phillip R. Certain, L&S dean emeritus and Madison Rep board member, was instrumental in launching this project. He says that there simply isn’t a better way to introduce the general public to physics.

“The play provides an excellent outreach opportunity for our Department of Physics to explore both the history and consequences of advances in the field,” he says. “The department has planned a number of exciting activities to help the public understand the physics around which the play is built.”

The activities will include pre- and post-play discussions of the chronology, ethics and effects of nuclear development. Robert March, UW–Madison professor emeritus of physics and an expert on quantum (minute particle) physics, will be speaking several times throughout the run of the play, placing high-energy physics in a number of different contexts.

“In 1941 Germany seemed to be on the verge of conquering the Soviet Union, and Werner Heisenberg was fresh from a realization that to make nuclear weapons was within his grasp,” March says. “The playwright researched these matters well, but didn’t have access to a critical letter that Bohr wrote but never sent to Heisenberg. The letter shows that their recollections of the meeting were even further apart than the play depicts.”

It is precisely this educational component that appeals so greatly to Madison Rep Director Richard Corley, who will be at the theatrical helm of “Copenhagen.”

“As a community entity engaged in civic dialog, it’s important that the Rep connects with the university’s pedagogical mission. This is a complex play dealing with a complex subject. Tapping into the university’s expertise will give audiences a much deeper understanding of both. I hope that this production is a template for future collaborations,” Corley says.

The educational activities surrounding the “Copenhagen” package will culminate with a panel discussion, “The Influence of Science in the 21st Century.” The forum will take place on Tuesday, Nov 9, at 7 p.m. in the State Historical Society auditorium on Library Mall. The panel discussion, and all related educational events, are free and open to the public.