Week 1 (February 12)

 Reading and Discussion:

Copenhagen by Michael Frayn  –  read the entire play (pp. 3 - 94)

Points to ponder: 

• Is it necessary to understand the science to make sense of the play?

• As a playgoer, would you read the play before seeing it?

• There are no stage directions, and the setting is unspecified. How would you direct the play? 

• What is the role of Bohr's wife Margrethe?

• When a play is about historical characters, especially relatively recent, does the playwright have a responsibility to present them as true-to-life as possible, or not?

• What do you think of the small talk of sailing and skiing that Heisenberg asks Bohr about?

• Note their different approaches in seeking understanding:  Heisenberg with mathematics, Bohr with philosophical implications. 

• Can they recapture the working relationship that led to their deep friendship? 

• Frayn skillfully explores conversations between Heisenberg and Bohr but does not seek to resolve the question of exactly what they talked about during the 1941 visit by Heisenberg, a subject that historians are still arguing about. 

Another view of the Bohr-Heisenberg 1941 meeting:

Sir Rudolf Peierls on Bohr and Heisenberg: 

“They’re both wrong. Heisenberg only remembers what he wants to and Bohr could not possibly have heard what Heisenberg had to say since he never stops talking.”

Updated Oct. 16, 2023