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Review: Copenhagen radio drama
This dramatic two-hour radio play by Michael Frayn describes what may have happened at a fictional September 1941 meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, between two famous theoretical physicists, Niels Bohr (creator of the Bohr model for an atom’s structure, played by Simon Russell Beale) and Werner Heisenberg (creator of the uncertainty principle, played by Benedict Cumberbatch), with Bohr’s wife, Margrethe (played by Greta Scacchi), also in attendance.
The meeting could not be more charged: Bohr and Heisenberg had a father-son mentoring relationship prior to the breakout of war, but Bohr was Danish with Jewish ancestry and Heisenberg was German (though with respect for the Jews in his field, at least, which landed him in trouble with the Nazis).
By persecuting Jewish people, the Nazis undermined the field of theoretical physics in their country because so many physicists in that field were Jews—which, this play argues, had major repercussions and was a contributing factor for why Germany lost World War II, specifically with regard to nuclear fission and the creation of the atom bomb.
While the structure of this play is difficult to follow at first, as it skips around in time and has narrating voiceovers from characters actually in a scene describing that scene, it’s really electrifying once it gets going and they get to the meat of why Heisenberg came to Copenhagen.
Benedict plays Heisenberg, about whom the Bohrs say there was “something alien about him, even then, so quick and eager—too quick, too eager—those bright, watchful eyes—too bright, too watchful.” Benedict absolutely shines in this, with his picture of a man exhausted, desperate, on edge, intense, almost drowning in the pressure put upon him, repeatedly referred to as a “lost child.” Heisenberg’s emotional anguish is so painful and moving, painting a heartbreaking image of the plight of German civilians in the anarchy after their defeat in both World Wars.
Sidenote—in the play, Bohr gives voice to one of the most romantic lines I think I’ve ever heard: “I was formed by nature to be a mathematically curious entity: not one, but half of two.” Aww.
You can find out more about the radio play here, or it’s also on Youtube here.
I also have more reviews of Benedict’s work at this link.
This dramatic two-hour radio play by Michael Frayn describes what may have happened at a fictional September 1941 meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark, between two famous theoretical physicists, Niels Bohr (creator of the Bohr model for an atom’s structure, played by Simon Russell Beale) and Werner Heisenberg (creator of the uncertainty principle, played by Benedict Cumberbatch), with Bohr’s wife, Margrethe (played by Greta Scacchi), also in attendance.
The meeting could not be more charged: Bohr and Heisenberg had a father-son mentoring relationship prior to the breakout of war, but Bohr was Danish with Jewish ancestry and Heisenberg was German (though with respect for the Jews in his field, at least, which landed him in trouble with the Nazis).
By persecuting Jewish people, the Nazis undermined the field of theoretical physics in their country because so many physicists in that field were Jews—which, this play argues, had major repercussions and was a contributing factor for why Germany lost World War II, specifically with regard to nuclear fission and the creation of the atom bomb.
While the structure of this play is difficult to follow at first, as it skips around in time and has narrating voiceovers from characters actually in a scene describing that scene, it’s really electrifying once it gets going and they get to the meat of why Heisenberg came to Copenhagen.
Benedict plays Heisenberg, about whom the Bohrs say there was “something alien about him, even then, so quick and eager—too quick, too eager—those bright, watchful eyes—too bright, too watchful.” Benedict absolutely shines in this, with his picture of a man exhausted, desperate, on edge, intense, almost drowning in the pressure put upon him, repeatedly referred to as a “lost child.” Heisenberg’s emotional anguish is so painful and moving, painting a heartbreaking image of the plight of German civilians in the anarchy after their defeat in both World Wars.
Sidenote—in the play, Bohr gives voice to one of the most romantic lines I think I’ve ever heard: “I was formed by nature to be a mathematically curious entity: not one, but half of two.” Aww.
You can find out more about the radio play here, or it’s also on Youtube here.
I also have more reviews of Benedict’s work at this link.
