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by Michael Frayn
SCIENTISTS CLASH IN
"COPENHAGEN" AT ITC
The
meeting of two Nobel laureates comes to the stage in COPENHAGEN, Michael
Frayn's Tony Award winning drama, which opens Friday, October 30 for a
three week run at the Illinois Theatre Center in Park Forest.
The play
is set in 1941, when German physicist Werner Heisenberg returned to
Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart, former mentor and colleague
Niels Bohr. Together, their work on quantum theory had revolutionized
atomic science in the 1920s, but now they were on opposite sides of a
world war. In this incisive drama, the two men meet in a situation
fraught with danger in hopes of discovering why we do what we do. The
New York Times called COPENHAGEN "The most invigorating and ingenious
play of ideas in many a year. An electrifying work of art.."
In 1924,
Heisenberg first went to Copenhagen to work with Bohr on quantum
theories. Over their three years together, they developed such
revolutionary ideas as the Uncertainty Principle. By 1941, in the heat
of World War II, Denmark was occupied by Nazi Germany, which put Bohr, a
half-Jewish quantum and nuclear physicist, in particular danger. At the
time, Heisenberg was working for Germany, heading an effort to develop
atomic energy for "practical purposes", which may have included an
atomic bomb. However, despite the danger posed between the two parties
and the fact that they were enemies by virtue of their nationality,
Heisenberg returned to Copenhagen, to the house of Bohr, in September of
that year, where they had a conversation which remains—for the most
part—a mystery.
Longtime
ITC veteran David Perkovich directs the production and appears as Niels
Bohr. Acclaimed Chicago actor Si Osborne makes his ITC debut as Werner
Heisenberg. Mary Mulligan, another ITC favorite, completes the cast as
Bohr's wife Margrethe. This same cast previously performed the play to
critical acclaim in the Northern Suburbs in 2005.
COPENHAGEN runs
Friday, October 30 through Sunday, November 15. Performances are Wed.
thru Sat. at 8 PM, Sundays at 2:30 & 7:30 PM. Tickets are priced at $21
on Fridays & Saturdays, $19 at all other times. The Illinois Theatre
Center is located at 371 Artists Walk in Downtown Park Forest (off
Indianwood Blvd. next to Village Hall). For tickets, call (708)
481-3510.
Oct. 30 to Nov. 15, 2009 |
