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Copenhagen February 7, 2004 - The Winter Garden Theatre This was a play in the 2004 Mirvish subscription series. It's description in the literature told us that it was a fictional meeting of Niels Bohr, his wife and Werner Heisenberg, in which they discussed the implications of their meeting in Copenhagen in the fall of 1941. Based on that description, this play didn't sound all that compelling. A week or so before seeing it I heard a review by Linda Slotkin, who is a theatre critic for Avril Benoit's afternoon show on CBC Radio One. Ms. Slotkin described the play as intellectual and compelling. Her description had me entirely hooked and very enthusiastic to see this play. I was not disappointed. In 1941, Denmark was an occupied country. Notwithstanding this, the Nazi's had not yet begun their pogrom of the Danish Jews and Niels Bohr, the famous physicist remained at the university. One of his former students and collaborators was Werner Heisenberg, another famous physicist. By 1941, Heisenberg was in charge of the Nazi's atomic research. Heisenberg traveled to Copenhagen in 1941 and, it is believed, met briefly with Bohr. After the war, much speculation occurred about the content of that meeting. Both Heisenberg's and Bohr's descriptions varied. This play takes place in the afterlife and is a meeting of Bohr, Heisenberg and Bohr's wife, who come together to interpret the meaning of the meeting and implications of atomic research during the war years. A necessary backdrop is the fact that Bohr escaped Denmark in 1943 and went to the U.S., where he played an important role in the Manhattan Project. Heisenberg, in turn, continued to work on the Nazi atomic program but did not, in fact, develop nuclear weapons technology. During their discussions of their days as student and teacher, Bohr and Heisenberg explore the development of quantum physics and modern theoretical physics. The 1920s and 1930s were the great days of the great minds of physics and was time of rapid advances in thought. Heisenberg won a Nobel prize at the age of 32 during these years. Bohr had one also. The afterlife discussion describes the unique ways they think. Bohr was a methodical thinker, trying hard to make his theories understandable in plain language. Heisenberg was an impulsive thinker - often reaching a conclusion based on leaps of logic that defied easy explanation. These different personalities led to clashes and great intellectual collaborations. It was clear that each greatly respected the other. The play describes how, despite a clear hatred of the Nazi's, Heisenberg was a devoted German and was not prepared to lightly betray his countrymen or place his family at risk. Nevertheless, he was torn over the implications of atomic weapons and was clearly aware that, if developed by the Nazi's, the targets would be England. Equally, he was aware that if the weapons were developed by the Allies the targets would be German. The actual details of the meeting in 1941 are unknown. But the author of the play speculates that Heisenberg was trying to warn Bohr (who had contacts with the English and U.S. scientists and governments) that Germany had an atomic research program. Heisenberg was also trying to convey his resolve to do what he could to distract or derail the Nazi research. Indeed, it is known that, at a pivotal moment in the Nazi program, Heisenberg did not recommend that atomic weapons research continue in Germany. Following that moment, the Nazi's effectively gave up such research. The play explores the moral debate over nuclear weapons and the moral dilemma that faced Heisenberg and Bohr. The dialogue in the play was gripping and intense. The emotion was evident and the subject matter was compelling. I was spellbound from beginning to end. I am, by inclination, a historian and this fed all of my appetites. Colin Empke |
