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May 11, 2011

Manny rated it:

- So what did you think?

- I liked it! A lot of really interesting historical stuff about the Bohr/Heisenberg/Schrödinger triangle. And I just had no idea about Heisenberg's involvement in the Nazi nuclear project. Fascinating. Can't imagine how I missed reading about that earlier.

- Ah, come on George, surely you got more out of it than that?

- Well, okay, okay, it was technically pretty impressive too. The way he uses quantum mechanics as a sustained metaphor More...

6 comments like (10 people liked it)

Feb 06, 2010

R rated it:

I'm kind of fascinated by the history of science, in particular by the lives of the various actors involved. You know, those whose significance in the grand scheme of things (as far as most are concerned) is exclusively defined by the work they have done. They were brilliant minds, lofty and untouchable to the likes of me. But above all they were human, with all the requisite failings and ambiguities, and when considered as such they become so much more fascinating -- which is why I picked up Co More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Feb 14, 2011

Connie rated it:

For Valentine's Day, Jesse gave me an uninterrupted hour to read Copenhagen and write the review. I'm running out of time, so this will be quick, which, coincidentally, is one of the major themes of the play. Anyway, here goes:

Copenhagen is a delightful play about physics. It is fun to think about and gratifying to imagine. I'm confident it would be an honor to stage this play and I am confident I would be thrilled to serve as the dramaturg on such a production. All that said, I ( More...

1 comment like (1 person liked it)

Jun 02, 2011

Cassandra rated it:

Heisenbergs line sums this the essence of the work up brilliantly:

Complementarity, once again. I'm your enemy; I'm also your friend. I'm a danger to mankind; I'm also your guest. I'm a particle; I'm also a wave. We have one set of obligations to the world in general, and we have other sets, never to be reconciled to our fellow countrymen... All we can do is to look afterwards, and see what happened.

This is I feel the premise and emotion garnered from this work. I do not More...

2 comments like (1 person liked it)

Apr 16, 2011

Rachel rated it:

I read this play just because it was on the shelf in the library next to one of Frayn's other plays, Noises Off, which we are doing this coming season at work. I try to read them all in advance and had gone to pick it up, saw this one and remembered that my dad had seen it on Broadway and loved it.

Wow. Just wow, what a masterfully crafted play it is, with utterly no stage directions whatsoever. It reminded me of a Caryl Churchill script in how bony it was, just language, everything els More...

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Dec 01, 2008

Cecilia rated it:

I read this is 3 days. I really enjoyed it again. I loved it when I saw it on Broadway and I loved reading it. Smart people talking fast and mixing metaphors, what more can you ask for in life?

This play talks about Neils Bohr and Heisenberg, they're working relationship and how they fell to different sides of WWII. It centers around a very brief meeting they had in 1941 and what exactly they said and why they met. The use of many physics concepts made easy to understand and dige More...

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Aug 09, 2011

Lily rated it:

I had to read this during this science summer program I joined, as well as watch the movie. Although it was difficult to get through at times, I found the movie to be more tolerant than the play itself. There's really not that much to it--it's just a conversation between the two men who helped create the atomic bomb (if memory serve me correctly) and the wife of one of the guys, but for what it's going for, it can be really entertaining to read and a lot more entertaining to watch with the right More...

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Sep 04, 2011

Suhrob rated it:

I was never interested in scientist biographies or back stories. It is
the theories and experiments what counts, right? But it might come
with age...

This is a beautiful short play about the relationship of Bohr and
Heissenberg, their role in the second World War nuclear programs, the
role of uncertainty in physics and human relationships.

I found it beautifully written - it is a complicated topic and I
think Frayn tackled it very sensitively and we More...

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Aug 08, 2011

Natalie rated it:

I really enjoyed this book. It's a play that is based on an event that occured in Copenhagen in 1941. It was a meeting between physicists Bohr and Heisenberg. Nobody knows exactly what was said or what transpired in that meeting. Bohr stormed away from whatever Heisenberg was trying to tell him and nobody knows exactly what Heisenberg was trying to say, or what Bohr thought he was saying.

Heisenberg insisted that he was telling Bohr that he had moral objections to building a bom More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 21, 2011

Aaron rated it:

For a Tony Award winning work (Best Play, 2000) Copenhagen didn't really impress me. The story seemed interesting enough; there isn't much action, which is ok for a play, and the stakes are rather high. I was distracted early on, however, by the encumbering use of breaking the 4th wall. This is a useful device, but in the beginning of the play the action seemingly flits back and forth without warning. Those who regularly read plays would be easily confused by this random shifting, to say not More...

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Nov 15, 2008

Jae rated it:

Heisenberg: Bohr, I have to know! I'm the one who has to decide! If the Allies are building a bomb, what am I choosing for my country? You said it would be easy to imagine that one might have less love for one's country if it's small and defenceless. Yes, and it would be another easy mistake to make, to think that one loved one's country less because it happened to be in the wrong. Germany is where I was born. Germany is where I became what I am. Germany is all the faces of my childhood, all the More...

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Feb 12, 2008

Rachel C. rated it:

This is a wonderful and thought-provoking play. Please don't be put off by the subject matter. Yes, it's about nuclear physics - specifically, it's the fictional account of a meeting between Werner Heisenberg and Niels Bohr in Copenhagen during which they discuss the development of the atomic bomb. BUT it's surprisingly accessible and relevant to the general public. At its nucleus (sorry, I couldn't resist) it's not so much about physics as it's about the human thought process, science and m More...

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Oct 11, 2009

Veronica rated it:

4 stars for a couple reasons. I WAS a little lost at times, I did mix up characters b/c I couldn't see them, but it's a great read--I was totally entertained. (And maybe that's b/c I don't understand the "work" they were doing. haha) 1. My husband got this book when he first started MIT, and I wanted to be smart like him and hold an intelligent conversation with him (one NOT just about children). 2. I wanted to say I read it. And I did. hahaha.

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Jul 21, 2008

Judine rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 08, 2009

David rated it:

Nice weaving of history and uncertainty. I don't love the opening, seems a little too self-consciously "Play!" But once we get into the issues, and the concepts, it starts to roll, and I love how it forces you to engage with the challenges of being a citizen of a nation and a citizen of the world. And what if your scientific knowledge were to suddenly become the key to killing millions of people? What then?

Worth a look.

3 comments like

Sep 19, 2009

notgettingenough rated it:

What a play. As I watched it I knew I had to see it again but wouldn't be able to as the season was booked out. As it was, the night we went our seats were on the stage. A peculiar experience.

Still, it meant I bought the book the next day. Gleefully grabbed by one of the people I went with before I could blink, so I hope that gives you an idea of how dense and yet magnetic this play is.

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May 30, 2011

Genevieve rated it:

I am in love with this play. If my "to-read" pile weren't so overwhelming, I'd turn right around and read it again. It's hard to mix theatre, philosophy and physics and NOT win me over, honestly, giving this an edge before I even cracked it open... but the beauty, tenderness and humor mix in the most delightful ways, and the language and themes stay with you long after putting it down.

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Oct 30, 2011

Jason rated it:

I didn't love this as much as I wanted to. This play centers around two meetings between Bohr and Heisenberg in Copenhagen. The first in 1941, during the war, where the play conveys the 'uncertainty' (get it...) about what Heisenberg's intentions were, what happened at ...the meeting -- was Heisenberg warning Bohr about the German bomb project, deliberately sabotaging it, seeking help on it, looking for someone to spy on the Americans, etc. The second is in 1947 in which they try, unsuccessfully More...

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Oct 31, 2011

Jay rated it:

Love this kind of look into history. The play was good, and an absorbing read, but especially interesting insofar as it opened a window into what really happened with Bohr and Heisenberg, the moral dilemmas of their research, learning about the Hiroshima bomb, their characters. I might look into the Powell book recommended in the "further reading" section.

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Mar 01, 2011

Bethany rated it:

At fist this book might seem a little too deep but I had an english teacher that opened it up for me, and now its one that I will always love. Probably also because it is one of my first books I was able to analyze on a deeper level, and it was a good experience for me. I suggest looking up this book on wikipedia and read about the backgrounds of both physicists. Both published theories. I loved seeing how the author made each character debate in a style that echoed each of their theories, each More...

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Jul 27, 2009

Jeff rated it:

Boy, I just love this play--it is one of my absolute favorites. I've seen it twice and this is actually my second time reading it. I know it is a weird play to love--Niels Bohrs, Werner Heisenberg, quantum mechanics, nuclear bombs, etc.--but I ultimately find it so affecting, a really profound meditations on the instability of memory and the relationships we construct out of and because of those memories.

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May 11, 2011

Nick added it

thought i'd read this, but i apparently haven't (i must have been thinking of faust in copenhagen).

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Jun 04, 2009

Barbara rated it:

An incredibly erudite text. I feel like I would've appreciated this more if I had any groundwork in theoretical and/or quantum physics, but I don't. It's not an unapproachable text, though. I'm going to have to sit and ponder about this one.

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May 31, 2011

Carol rated it:

I needed to read this after seeing the play and feeling that I had missed a lot. I do the same with Tom Stoppard. Copenhagen did not disappoint in the reading. A great imagining of a real meeting on a globally critical topic.

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Dec 15, 2009

Katerlio rated it:

its a play, be warned. I'm reading them lately. I am fascinated by the copenhagen interpretation, in spite of my somewhat eleentary understanding of the physics and chemistry involved - it is such an intense historical moment. this is a trememndously good reading of history into action, complete with an our-town-after-death pov. in fact, much like our town all around, so if you didn't like that you probably won't like this - but if you did, whoa.

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Apr 20, 2008

Douglas rated it:

An application of the idea of the uncertainty principle to the events of Bohr's meeting with Heisenberg in 1941. The author,(I assumed the author was a woman until I sat down to write this review. I suppose that's because of the strength of the character of Bohr's wife, Margrethe.) ,Michael Frayn, is an excellent historian, playwright, and judge of human nature. He is not a physicist, though. Sometimes I think that in order to actually be able to do quantum mechanics, you have to stop being t More...

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Feb 07, 2012

Samantha rated it:

I loved this. I never usually read plays, and this is very different from a normal play. But the content is SO interesting to me. I'm actually really inspired to research this topic further by reading the non-fiction works Frayn cited in the postscript.

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Aug 04, 2009

Pimpawan rated it:

I love physic but I give this play 1 shiny star because, I really can't see the point of it. The play is totally just a bowl of mixingupallthosesophisticatedquantumphysicideasthatsell salad.

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Feb 27, 2010

Paula rated it:

Physics and history create art and drama. What might have happened between Heisenberg, head of the Nazi atomic bomb program, and Niels Bohr, who worked on the Manhattan Project.

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May 11, 2011

pax rated it:

I'll come back and write a proper review for the book once I manage to disentangle my thoughts on it. For the moment the only coherent thing I can say is: read it! The play and then - and this is an imperative to really "get" it - the two postscripts. Just read it.

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