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| Pic: Catherine Ashmore |
Albert Einstein once said: "I know not with what weapons World War Three will be fought, but World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones."
The use of atomic bombs on Japan in August 1945 brought an end to World War Two's Pacific conflict, three months after the Nazi surrender in Europe. It was the United States that exploded those bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima, a result of years of research as part of the Manhattan Project.
Meanwhile, in Germany during the war, scientists were also trying to win the arms race to atomic supremacy, but were beaten to it by the States.
But that might not have been the case, and that forms the basis for what is a fascinating yet dense play by Michael Frayn which unpicks the controversy surrounding the ethics of using nuclear power in warfare.
In 1941, years after they had last worked together, there was a real-life meeting between two physicists in Copenhagen – Danish-born Niels Bohr, and his German protegee Werner Heisenberg. The history books are not clear on what exactly was said during this meeting – the participants' recollections differ – but it would seem the question at the very heart of it all was from Heisenberg, whose conscience was searching for justification for developing nuclear power to be used by Hitler.
Copenhagen's set is stark, a construction of pale grey screens before which three actors play out various interpretations, or "drafts", of what was said that day in 1941.
Much of the debate between the two scientists is technically worded – if you know nothing about World War Two, wartime Europe or nuclear fission, you might struggle a little.
Luckily, the third character is Bohr's wife Margrethe – not a scientist, but someone her husband would bounce ideas off, to try and explain his theories in "plain language". It is this strivance to explain his scientific theories in plain language which enables the lay audience member to join in, else this might be a very difficult play to follow, unless you’re Professor Stephen Hawking.
What the play loses in familiarity makes up for in sheer courage. It is uncompromising and unapologetic in its density, its determination to challenge both the characters and the audience with its subject and interpretation.
Simon Armstrong (Niels), Sian Howard (Margrethe) and Sion Pritchard (Werner) are all jaw-droppingly solid in their roles. Utterly convincing, powerful in their conviction and knowledge of the text, and faultless in execution. I always marvel at the ability of actors to learn any amount of lines, but I presume these three have also had to read up on some of the science and history they are discussing, in order to act it out so masterfully.
Learning lines is one thing, but understanding things like the Uncertainty Principle, uranium fission, and a breathless namecheck of German physicists is quite another.
Copenhagen takes you somewhere you will never have been before, talks about things you won't have thought about during a play before, and ultimately either inspires you or turns you to despair.
But what it will definitely do is make you think about Mankind's future, and whether it really was right to use such a major scientific breakthrough for such monstrous ends.
The stats
Writer: Michael Frayn
Director: Emma Lucia
Cast: Simon Armstrong (Niels Bohr); Sian Howard (Margrethe Bohr); Sion Pritchard (Werner Heisenberg)
Performed at Clwyd Theatr Cymru, Mold, October 31 to November 23, 2013. Performance reviewed: November 5, 2013
Links
Copenhagen on the Clwyd Theatr Cymru website (retrieved Jan 11, 2015)
Michael Frayn on the British Council website (retrieved Jan 11, 2015)
Promotional video (retrieved Jan 11, 2015)
Video of Michael Frayn in conversation on the subject of Copenhagen (retrieved Jan 11, 2015)
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