Books › Copenhagen
Copenhagen
First published 1999 · 132 pages
A ghostly, intellectual sparring match that uses the laws of quantum physics to map the unknowable mysteries of the human heart.
What it feels like
Reading this play feels like being trapped in a brilliant, claustrophobic echo chamber where the ghosts of history endlessly debate their own motives. The pacing is steady and circular, driven entirely by sharp, rhythmic dialogue that snaps back and forth like a tennis match of the mind. It is a deeply cerebral experience, wrapping the reader in a tense, shadowy atmosphere where the stakes are nothing less than the fate of the world. The text uses the language of quantum mechanics as a profound metaphor for the impossibility of truly knowing another person's intentions. It will thoroughly delight lovers of philosophical drama, historical hypotheticals, and anyone who thrills at watching towering intellects wrestle with impossible moral burdens.
- Mood
- claustrophobic
- cerebral
- tense
- haunting
- shadowy
- Tone
- intellectual
- probing
- philosophical
- urgent
- reflective
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- moral responsibility · unreliability of memory · burden of genius · uncertainty of human motivation · science and ethics
- The writing
- Sharp, rhythmic, and densely intellectual, using the language of quantum physics as a brilliant metaphor for human interaction.
- The arc
- Moves from a tense, ghostly reunion through layers of defensive intellectual sparring, culminating in a haunting, unresolved acceptance of human unknowability.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love philosophical debates, historical hypotheticals, and dense, character-driven intellectual dramas.
Content notes
- discussions of war
- nuclear weapons
- existential dread
About the book
"Copenhagen is a reimagining of the mysterious wartime meeting between two Nobel laureates to discuss the atomic bomb. In 1941 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a strange trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart, Niels Bohr. They were old friends and close colleagues, and they had revolutionized atomic physics in the 1920s with their work together on quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle. But now the world had changed, and the two men were on opposite sides in a world war. The meeting was fraught with danger and embarrassment; it ended in disaster." "Why Heisenberg went to Copenhagen and what he wanted to say to Bohr are questions that have exercised historians ever since. In Michael Frayn's new play, an ambitious, fiercely intelligent, and daring dramatic sensation, Heisenberg meets Bohr and his wife, Margrethe, once again to look for the answers and to work out - just as they had worked out the internal functioning of the atom - how we can ever know why we do what we do."--Jacket.
Description from Open Library.
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