Two scientists - one German, one Danish - collaborate on theories that place them at the helm of the scientific world in the mid twentieth century. Their families become close friends. Then war breaks out and the Nazis occupy Denmark.
What could simply be a poignant story of friendship and betrayal assumes sinister dimensions because Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg are the two scientists whose work laid the foundation for developing the atom bomb. Michael Frayn's play COPENHAGEN intersperses their brutally honest friendship with data about physics as it was developing at that time.
A dense and tough play, but Avaan Patel has taken on the challenge of directing it with Tom Alter and Vivek Tandon in the key roles and Veera Abadan playing Niels Bohs's wife, Margarethe. Meher Pestonji discusses the play with director Avaan Patel.
Meher Pestonji
Where did you first come across Michael Frayn's play COPENHAGEN? What attracted you to it?
A friend who taught Mathematics gave me the play to read. I was attracted by several factors: Michael Frayn's craft, his ability to get at the heart of the 1941 historic meeting between Bohr and Heisenberg, in a manner that's pure theatre; and the language and structure of the play, the way it keeps coming back to the question - "Heisenberg, why did you come to Copenhagen?". It's like a musical theme.
Did you find interpreting the scientific parts of the dialogue challenging? Are you using any special effects?
Yes, I did. I was never good at physics in school! But I finally did manage to get a basic understanding of it. We are not using special effects but I have created a set which conveys the interior of Bohr's home (he lived in a mansion) and the sense of a warm, safe in-door space, and then the outdoors, from which Heisenberg comes, "followed, presumably by my invisible shadow", the Gestapo. I have also included in the set an elevated platform area, from which Margrethe often observes the action of the play.
What interests you more - the friendship between Bohr and Heisenberg or the ethical issues around developing the bomb?
Both, I think. The way Michael Frayn has written the play, the characters come alive. Not only the three characters on stage, but all the other physicists he mentions. It must have been a vibrant time in history - those pre-war years when there were so many discoveries in science. Frayn captures this. One wonders, 'what must it have been like to witness to that time.' At the core of it all was the almost archetypal friendship between Bohr and Heisenberg.
From the perspective of a woman, how do you view Margrethe - faithfully typing her husband's manuscripts through which she gets to know and ask the most pertinent questions?
Margrethe is a most interesting character. She is loyal to Bohr and although she defends him when Heisenberg accuses him of helping to build the bomb at Los Alamos, she also sees the sense of self-importance that Bohr is guilty of, and she asks the ironical question: "So this man you've put at the centre of the universe-is it you, or is it Heisenberg?"
There is a quote from the play- "I'm your enemy, I'm also your friend. I'm a danger to mankind, I'm also your guest. I'm a particle, also a wave. We have one set of obligations to the world, and we have another set to our fellow-country-men, our neighbours, friends...." I see this as the crux of the dilemmas in the play. What do you think about it?
Frayn has not taken a black and white view of the encounter. He has held it up to the light. He has looked at it from all angles. What emerges is a humane look at the world-an imperfect, bloody world, no doubt, but one that has possibilities of greatness in human relationships.
*Meher Pestonji is a journalist, novelist and playwright. The radio version of her play, FEEDING CROWS won the South Asia segment of the BBC/British Council Radio Playwriting Competition in 2009 and was also the international runner-up.
