Does this make Uncertainty more certain? What happens to Principles?
There’s nothing like a cerebral 3 hander discussing quantum theory to set the mind racing…or rather there’s nothing (etc. etc.) if its written by Michael Frayn.
In 1941 Werner Heisenberg (Niels Bohr’s former student and almost a substitute son, and now the German Physicist in charge of Wehrmacht work on nuclear fission), came to occupied Copenhagen to visit his former guide and collaborator – half Jewish and still working on fission.
The purpose of the visit, and it’s outcome, remain obscure. Michael Frayn’s 1998 play examines the possibilities, as his three characters, all now deceased, revisit and argue what really happened, what the intentions of the two physicists were. Heisenberg’s Uncertainly Principle (that you cannot know everything about a particle, even if you ‘are’ the particle) informs the approach the playwright takes.
It’s a demanding play, particularly as the same incident, and its triggers are revisited, demanding on the actors but also on the audience; neither group can lose focus for a second. Frayn does at least offer us, in the end, his own view (no spoilers) rather than taking a more modern approach of leaving us in limbo.
The set is simple, 3 chairs and a complex revolve, with a panoply of lights (are they stars?) and pools of water (not fully used and somewhat redundant save for a single use – but redolent perhaps of the accidental death of one of Bohr’s children).
Alex Kingston plays Bohr’s wife (and secretary) Margrethe as a voice of still sanity challenging the excitable physicists to review carefully what they are saying and believing. The most complex character is Heisenberg, well played by Damien Malony, as he is clearly least certain of his motivations (which may have been multiple) in instigating the visit. In many ways Richard Schiff has the easiest task, his motivations the clearest, his confusion being what Heisenberg wants, rather than on his own motivations.
Curiously the play picks up on a just post-war incident fully visited in the 2023 play Farm Hall, when German scientists including Heisenberg first hear of the Hiroshima bomb; reviewed also here.