Copenhagen: A Play by Michael Frayn in Denmark on June 6, 2003

Jim Stout: How does science work? Both scientist and non-scientist need to understand the question and its possible answers...and the UNCERTAINTIES involved. Add COPENHAGEN to your literary explorations, along with THE STRUCTURE OF SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTIONS and a Stanislaw Lem novel!

United States on Aug 22, 2023

Kat: Compelling and extremely well written. The annotations provide context and further information that is literally fascinating. Made into a movie starring Daniel Craig.

United States on Jul 11, 2023

Gabrielle Grosbety: The mentalities of the characters in Copenhagen are based on the idea of the nuclear family, the importance of interpersonal relationships, and space of the home as a safe, secure sphere to interact within. This longing for security becomes contradictory to the underlying, inevitable uncertainty society impresses upon individuals in Copenhagen, which comes to exist at the core of everything Copenhagen’s characters do, manifesting itself in their intentions, morals, and loyalties, and being most authentically explained through Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr’s scientific principles of uncertainty and complementarity, respectively.

How individuals reacted to coming out of conflict appear in this insecure, uncertain world of Copenhagen and are examined from the afterlife in the relationship dynamics between Danish physicist Niels Bohr, Margrethe, and German theoretical physicist Werner Heisenberg, during and post-WWII, and are modeled cleverly on the structure of an atom, with each character an electron orbiting around a nucleus of uncertainty, and constantly reorganizing depending on circumstance.

Security and relationships are tenuous and complex in wartime and...

United States on Aug 18, 2020

Di le Fay: The author is great and the plot however utterly brainy and challenging at times provided a great time to learn and have fun.

United Kingdom on Dec 28, 2019

Monica Weissmann: Very interesting real life story with different interpretations, very well written, much enjoyable!
I did not know much about the main characters and they came to life in an incredible way ...
I have to confess that i have attended the performance of the play, before rereading the script and it was all very enjoyable!

Canada on Jun 15, 2019

Agnese: Ho comprato questo libro usato ed era in ottime condizioni.
Il libro è una sceneggiatura in cui avviene solo un dialogo postmortem tra due grandi fisici, Heisenberg e Bohr, e la moglie di quest'ultimo. L'avvenimento principale è l'incontro tra i due fisici a Copenhagen, nella casa di Bohr nel 1941 (accaduto realmente). Tra eventi reali e romanzati, i due atti attraversano la situazione politica dagli anni 20 alla seconda guerra mondiale, con l'invenzione della bomba atomica.
Il libro è assolutamente favoloso, scorrevole e scritto in modo magnificamente semplice, tale da far comprendere anche le parti di fisica più difficili a un pubblico vasto. Da questo lettura ho cominciato ad appassionarmi ed a incuriosirmi: sono corsa a fare mille ricerche, presa dalla brama di sapere di più.
Molto interessante anche il Post script, in cui l'autore racconta nel dettaglio le sue scelte in fase di scrittura.

Dovrebbero leggerlo tutti! Assolutamente consigliato!

Italy on Aug 16, 2015

Dr. T.: Niels Bohr und Werner Heisenberg, im Leben Mentor und Schüler, Freunde, die mache Wanderung oder Skitour gemeinsam unternahmen, und dabei über Atomphysik diskutierten, kongeniale Wegbereiter der Quantenmechanik, treffen, nun längst verstorben, an einem unbestimmten Ort wieder zusammen, weiter um getrieben von den Problemen, die im Leben ungelöst blieben.

Das ist die Konstellation des drei Personen Stück „Copenhagen“, die Dritte im Bunde ist Bohrs Ehefrau Margarethe, sie begleitet das Geschehen kommentierenden und katalysierend. Durch diesen Kunstgriff gelingt es Michael Frayn die Ereignisse aus jeweils wechselnden Perspektiven zu schildern.

Das Stück beginnt mit einem besonders kritischen Ereignis: Heisenbergs Besuch im September 1941 bei Niels Bohr – die Zeiten haben sich geändert: Dänemark wurde von Nazi- Deutschland besetzt -- Heisenberg ist nun Leiter des deutschen Uranprojekt, der offizielle Anlass seines Besuch ist ausgerechnet ein Vortrag am Deutschen Wissenschaftliche Institut in Kopenhagen. „But why?“ – frag Margarethe zu Beginn – wollte Heisenberg über Bohr Einfluss auf das Atombomben Projekt der Alliierten nehmen? – darüber...

Germany on Sep 28, 2014

LJS: First, I think this book would benefit most by an update by the author that discussed the letter from Bohr which clearly implicated Heisenberg as attempting to develop a Nazi bomb and sought Bohr's aid, a letter that was released only a few years after the play was written.
The play itself is gripping, though perhaps a bit repetitious, and I enjoyed reading it even more than viewing it in the theater where I think I missed some of the nuance of the text. It is a story of tragic and terrifying implication, and the author maintains an appropriate sense of tension and dread throughout. I don't know if it would appeal as much to a reader without at least some background in twentieth century physics and the seminal roles played by the characters of the play. I think it is important to have a sense of the greatness of the physics developed by the characters, and the state of excitement those developments engendered in the physics community of that time. In particular, Bohr's principal of complementarity is discussed at some length, but without any explication of its import, and as it is a difficult enough (even ephemeral, almost) an idea to begin to grasp, much of the attempt to...

United States on Jan 29, 2014

R. Wilson: I think the book is wonderful - though I have only read it, never seen a performance. I suppose I have two unfair advantages in reading this book. Firstly I am reading, not watching, so I can turn back and go over difficult points again thus making better sense of them. Secondly I am a physicist (though very rusty nowadays), and I have a certain love for Quantum Theory engendered by Feynman's big red book.

I can see that without these two advantages the play might be less attractive. It can't be a total turn off, though, because the play was recommended to me by a non-scientific friend who saw it in London and was very much enthralled by it.

So it may be worth a non-scientist giving it a try.

For me, the book is better than the play for a third reason: it includes a wonderful postscript exhibiting the great forensic skill that Frayn used to write the play. What may annoy some people is that the book (or play) require hard work of the reader (or audience) and still end up raising many more questions than answers. But the questions are explored with great thoroughness, and the main characters are treated so honestly, and yet tenderly.

For me the effort...

United Kingdom on Dec 23, 2006

J. Carroll: COPENHAGEN is a play that welcomes a reading. The structure of pure dialogue between the physicists, Heisenberg, Bohr and Bohr's wife Margrethe( who represents the non-physicists in the audience) lends itself to the closer examination the written word gives us. Michael Frayn brilliantly imagines a moment frozen in time- Heisenberg arrives from Germany in 1941 to discuss something with his mentor, Bohr in occupied Copenhagen. Seizing upon this historical event and its mysterious circumstances, Frayn recreates the event from a variety of perspectives in pursuit of a greater truth. Was Heisenberg a hero, who kept the Nazi's from achieving the ultimate weapon, or a victim of his own carelessness?
Reading the play, gives you the time to reflect upon how creatively Frayn frames each of his scenarios. The dialogue is never less than challenging, even while playing to the audience surrogate, Margrethe. Frayn uses these two great minds to introduce the audience into the realm of advanced physics and the moral ambiguities involved in the mixing of pure science with the nature of war. The forced civility between the two men emphasizes the underlying current of terror created by the Nazis...

United States on Jan 21, 2004