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Copenhagen

3.97 of 5 stars 3.97 · rating details · 1,619 ratings · 120 reviews

The Tony Award—winning play that soars at the intersection of science and art, Copenhagen is an explosive re-imagining of the mysterious wartime meeting between two Nobel laureates to discuss the atomic bomb.

In 1941 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a clandestine trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart and friend Niels Bohr. Their work together on quantu...more

Paperback, 144 pages

Published August 8th 2000 by Anchor (first published June 4th 1998)

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May 11, 2011 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: history-and-biography, science, story-review

- 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 throughout. I didn't think he'd be a...more

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Aug 22, 2012 Milica Chotra rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. If you're interested in history of science and WW2, especially physics and atomic bomb, I can't recommend it highly enough. Of course, this is a work of fiction and Frayn knows nothing about quantum mechanics, but still... it's interesting, informative and cleverly written.
_________________________________

Why did Heisenberg go to Copenhagen in 1941?

The Idea. "The idea for Copenhagen came to me out of my interest in philosophy. It was when I read a remarkable book...more

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Jan 15, 2013 Bettie rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Bettie by: Laura

Shelves: published-1998, radio-3, sciences, play-dramatisation, fradio, historical-fiction, winter-20122013

blurb: Benedict Cumberbatch, Greta Scacchi and Simon Russell Beale star in Michael Frayn's award-winning play about the controversial 1941 meeting between physicists Bohr and Heisenberg, part of a joint Radio 3 and Radio 4 series of three Michael Frayn dramas for radio - including new adaptations of his novels, 'Skios' and 'Headlong'.

Copenhagen, Autumn 1941. The two presiding geniuses of quantum physics, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg meet for the first time since the breakout of war.

Danish ph...more

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Apr 30, 2013 David Beeson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When two outstanding scientists, belonging to nations locked in a bitter war, met in September 1941, what exactly did they say to each other?

Niels Bohr was one of the fathers of modern atomic theory, the ‘pope’ of the movement as the play’s characters call him. Werner Heisenberg was his most brilliant student and later colleague, and the man who gave us the uncertainty principle.

Uncertainty is the key notion of the play.

What is far from uncertain is that in 1941, Heisenberg’s Germany, under Nazi...more

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Faith Colburn What an ironic twist! Is this play being staged anywhere? I'd love to see what your own Patrick Stewart or Ian McKellen could do with Heisenberg. I do...more
May 01, 2013 12:59pm

David Beeson There's a glorious 2002 TV production, with a superb cast: Stephen Rea as Bohr, Francesca Annis as Margrethe Bohr and Daniel Craig as Heisenberg. Step...more
updated May 02, 2013 10:23am

Faith Colburn AFter I asked the question, I looked it up and found the 2002 production. I'll haved to see if I can get it on Netflix. I WILL allow for your Britishn...more
May 02, 2013 09:24am

Jan 13, 2013 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Bettie, Carey

Shelves: audio-books, non-fiction, physics-history-science, read-2013

Drama on 3:
Benedict Cumberbatch, Greta Scacchi and Simon Russell Beale star in Michael Frayn's award-winning play about the controversial 1941 meeting between physicists Bohr and Heisenberg, part of a joint Radio 3 and Radio 4 series of three Michael Frayn dramas for radio - including new adaptations of his novels, 'Skios' and 'Headlong'.

Being a physicist myself, this dialog between Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg was widely discussed during my graduation studies.

For further information, please...more

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Apr 01, 2012 Pooriya rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: play

نمایش‌نامه‌ای در مورد فیزیک اتمی و بمب اتم! نیلز بور و ورنر هایزنبرگ و مارگارت (همسر بور) مُرده‌اند و اکنون در عالم ارواح شاید در حال صحبت با هم هستند. درمورد آخرین ملاقات بور و هایزنبرگ در سال 1941 در کوپنهاگ. ملاقاتی که بر سر اشغال دانمارک (کشور بور) توسط آلمان (کشور هایزنبرگ) به تیرگی روابط دوستانه این دو فیزک‌دان می‌شود.
در کل نمایش‌نامه پر از فلش‌بک‌های متعدد به سال‌ها و ملاقات‌های مختلف است و توضیح کامل پیدایش بمب اتم و آزمایش آن چند ماه قبل از هیروشیما و بالاخره فاجعه‌ی بزرگ هیروشیما. ترس...more نمایش‌نامه‌ای در مورد فیزیک اتمی و بمب اتم! نیلز بور و ورنر هایزنبرگ و مارگارت (همسر بور) مُرده‌اند و اکنون در عالم ارواح شاید در حال صحبت با هم هستند. درمورد آخرین ملاقات بور و هایزنبرگ در سال 1941 در کوپنهاگ. ملاقاتی که بر سر اشغال دانمارک (کشور بور) توسط آلمان (کشور هایزنبرگ) به تیرگی روابط دوستانه این دو فیزک‌دان می‌شود.
در کل نمایش‌نامه پر از فلش‌بک‌های متعدد به سال‌ها و ملاقات‌های مختلف است و توضیح کامل پیدایش بمب اتم و آزمایش آن چند ماه قبل از هیروشیما و بالاخره فاجعه‌ی بزرگ هیروشیما. ترس متفقین از این‌که هیتلر به این بمب دست پیدا نکند و بالاخره انفجار اولین بمب اتمی در هیروشیما توسط آمریکا! در واقع دیوانگانی (متفقین) که بر ضد دیوانه‌ای دیگر (هیتلر) تبلیغ می‌کردند و آخر خودشان همان‌کاری را کردند که می‌ترسیدند طرف دیگر جنگ بکند.
نمایش‌نامه کلن برپایه‌ی این می‌گذره که اهل قدرت و سیاست فرق چندانی با هم نمی‌کنند و وقتی هم که علم به دستشون میوفته توانایی ایجاد بدترین فجایع انسانی رو دارن حتی اگر خودشون تبلیغ کنندگان بر ضد اون فاجعه باشن. و صد البته موضوع این‌که «اگر من فلان کار رو نمی‌کردم یکی دیگه می‌کرد» که متاسفانه در بین اهل علم خیلی باب هست (به‌گذریم که تو مملکت ما در بین همه اقشار جامعه باب هست!) و متاسفانه دانشمندان حاضرن برای ارضای شهوت علم، شهرت و پول با دولت‌مردان مستبد هم‌کاری بکنن و آخرش هم با رضایت کامل می‌گن ما برای بشریت و پیشرفت علم این‌کار رو کردیم، یا اگر ما نمی‌کردیم فلانی‌ها می‌کردند و دیگر توجیهات که تو این نمایش‌نامه به خوبی نمایشش داده.‏(less)

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Jan 13, 2013 Gerri Leen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-author

I saw this play on Broadway in 2000--the year it won the Tony for best play--and loved it. Since I've had a horrible run of books, I decided to change my luck and read something I knew I would love. Good call on my part. Such a joy to re-experience this amazing study of three people (Danish Physicist Niels Bohr and his wife Margrethe, and German Physicist Werner Heisenberg) as they, in a very quantum way, try to figure out why Heisenberg came to Copenhagen in 1941 to meet with Bohr and what he s...more I saw this play on Broadway in 2000--the year it won the Tony for best play--and loved it. Since I've had a horrible run of books, I decided to change my luck and read something I knew I would love. Good call on my part. Such a joy to re-experience this amazing study of three people (Danish Physicist Niels Bohr and his wife Margrethe, and German Physicist Werner Heisenberg) as they, in a very quantum way, try to figure out why Heisenberg came to Copenhagen in 1941 to meet with Bohr and what he said to him that night during a walk that so upset Bohr that it ended a friendship that was so strong it was nearly father/son. I will be honest: when I saw this in the theater, at least a third of the audience left at intermission. It's not for the meek: Michael Frayn assumes you've got some basic knowledge about history and physics, and he's not going to dumb it down for you. Which I loved. There is also humor in the play, but it's physics humor. The story reboots several times as observers interact to try to figure out how they impacted the events of that fateful night, how other events impacted their perception of that night, and even if they can really ever understand their own or anyone else's behavior.

My favorite lines from the play are these:
"We put man back at the center of the universe. Throughout history we keep finding ourselves displaced. We keep exiling ourselves to the periphery of things. First we turn ourselves into a mere adjunct of God's unknowable purposes, tiny figures keeling in the great cathedral of creation. And no sooner have we recovered ourselves in the Renaissance, no sooner has man become, as Protagoras proclaimed him, the measure of all things, than we're pushed aside again by the products of our own reasoning! We're dwarfed again as physicists build the great new cathedrals for us to wonder at--the laws of classical mechanics that predate us from the beginning of eternity , that will survive us to eternity's end, that exist whether we exist or not. Until we come to the beginning of the twentieth century, and we're suddenly forced to rise from our knees again."
"It starts with Einstein."
"It starts with Einstein. He shows that measurement--measurement on which the whole possibility of science depends--measurement is not an impersonal event that occurs with impartial universality. It's a human act, carried out from a specific point of view in time and space, from the one particular viewpoint of a possible observer. Then, here in Copenhagen in those three years in the mid-twenties we discover that there is no precisely determinable objective universe. That the universe exists only as a series of approximations. Only within the limits determined by our relationship with it. Only through the understanding lodged inside the human head."

This one stands out for me (can you imagine having to learn these lines??) but there are tons more of gems in this play. It's dense material--and I mean of course the definition that goes with matter not the one that means stupid--but it's moving and at times funny. And chilling. These men and their friendship and its demise intersected with a terrible point in history: they weren't at odds over a fence line, it literally was the fate of the free world.

If you want to view it, there is a--how to put this tactfully? Oh to hell with it--dumbed down version from PBS available on netflix with Daniel Craig playing Heisenberg. They cut out a lot of dialogue, what humor there is in the play is gone from this, and they've chosen to show it as a traditional production rather than as the play is produced (in tight quarters to mimic the atom--or a courtroom: in the stage production, a small part of the audience sits on stage looking down on the actors from a high rounded area, like a tribunal). I don't know that the story is actually helped by all the space and lush settings the PBS production has put in. They are distractions to the plot. They also use voiceovers to help the viewer (I guess) but it's confusing, I think--although perhaps others find the play confusing with it all being dialogue no matter when the action takes place (it's quantum--it's not always linear). The DVD comes with a prologue and epilogue from the playwright, which are informative and well done.

A lovely interlude and now I'm off to try new things again and probably hit some real duds. But that's okay. I'll always have Copenhagen.(less)

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Dec 30, 2012 Mitchell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

In 1941, German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a clandestine trip to have dinner with his friend, Danish physicist Niels Bohr, and his wife, Margrethe. They were two of the absolute best scientists in their field—this was the same Heisenberg who had formulated the Uncertainty Principle—and they had challenged each other to do some of their very best work. But Heisenberg was a patriotic German who was now working, probably with some reluctance, under the Nazis; Bohr, who was half-Jewish, would...more In 1941, German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a clandestine trip to have dinner with his friend, Danish physicist Niels Bohr, and his wife, Margrethe. They were two of the absolute best scientists in their field—this was the same Heisenberg who had formulated the Uncertainty Principle—and they had challenged each other to do some of their very best work. But Heisenberg was a patriotic German who was now working, probably with some reluctance, under the Nazis; Bohr, who was half-Jewish, would soon be forced to flee Denmark. After dinner, the two of them went for a walk and had a conversation about the point of Heisenberg's visit. At the end of that conversation, their friendship was over and Heisenberg returned to Germany.

These are the agreed-upon facts of that evening, but no one can seem to agree on exactly what was said during that conversation: not the two scientists themselves in the aftermath of World War II, and certainly not the historians who have tried to piece it together since then. There's some consensus that one of the main topics must have been nuclear research and the question of whether Germany or the Allies had the resources or knowledge to develop nuclear weapons, but even that is hazy if you just look at the strict historical record. MIchael Frayn's play doesn't presume to try to figure out, definitively, what was said that night; in fact, it argues that Heisenberg, Bohr, and Margrethe Bohr are still trying themselves to agree on what happened, even years after they've all died.

Starting with several conflicting (but sometimes co-existent) historical accounts, Frayn creates fictionalized versions of these three figures and sets them talking. They talk about the exhilaration of being on the cutting edge of physics in the 1920s, the death of one of the Bohrs' sons in a boating accident, the encroachment of the Nazis on Germany's brilliant, promising scientific community, and, yes, the manipulation of uranium to create nuclear fission. The story largely belongs to Heisenberg, who was almost undoubtedly smart enough to solve the same equations that allowed his counterparts in Los Alamos to create a bomb. Did he consciously prevent the initiation of a Nazi nuclear program? Or was he simply unable to do the right calculations in time, despite his genius? The answer almost certainly lies in the gray area between those possibilities, and it's that ambiguity in Heisenberg's mind and character that Frayn so eloquently explores, both in his play and in a long, expansive bibliographical essay that lays out many of the uncertainties in Heisenberg's motivations and the factors that led him to seek out Bohr for that last disastrous conversation that might have had such a tremendous impact on world history.(less)

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Feb 06, 2010 R rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: stage-and-screen, fiction, rpf

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

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Feb 14, 2011 Connie Kuntz rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 (for once) have...more

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Oct 25, 2008 Jenny rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read08

I wish this had come with stage directions, because it was difficult to understand some of the dialogue without knowing how they were interacting (or not) on stage. Interesting subject, first act was much better than the second, I thought the author was trying too hard to make quantum mechanics match the possibilities of what happened at Bohr's home.

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Jun 02, 2011 Cassandra Silva rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: science, theatre

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 know if personally I wou...more

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Apr 16, 2011 Rachel Pollock rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 else open to...more

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Feb 07, 2013 rabbitprincess rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: those who like science and philosophy

Recommended to rabbitprincess by: the BBC Radio 3 Drama on 3 adaptation

Shelves: bibliotheque, 2013

* * * 1/2

Sometimes I give books "theme songs": their themes, dialogue or storyline may remind me of a song I know (and usually like). In the case of Copenhagen, it's the Blue Rodeo tune "5 A.M. (A Love Song)", from which I quote in this review (in italics). It's about figuring out the motivations behind a relationship and sorting out how one personally feels about it.

Funny how I'm always here with you
I never meant to change your world
Or change your point of view

Werner Heisenberg paid a visit to...more * * * 1/2

Sometimes I give books "theme songs": their themes, dialogue or storyline may remind me of a song I know (and usually like). In the case of Copenhagen, it's the Blue Rodeo tune "5 A.M. (A Love Song)", from which I quote in this review (in italics). It's about figuring out the motivations behind a relationship and sorting out how one personally feels about it.

Funny how I'm always here with you
I never meant to change your world
Or change your point of view

Werner Heisenberg paid a visit to his old friend and mentor, Niels Bohr, in Copenhagen during the Second World War: 1941, to be precise. They were on opposite sides: Bohr a citizen of an occupied country, Heisenberg part of the German science program. Why did Heisenberg visit at all? What did he say that made their friendship go so terribly wrong? Nobody knows for sure, but the visit did actually happen. In this play, Frayn imagines Heisenberg, Bohr and Bohr's wife, Margrethe, as spirits in the afterlife discussing the meeting and trying to figure out Heisenberg's motivations.

And as we sort out the 'Who said? You said', "Who said? I said",
I only wish I came a little better prepared

This is very much a thinking/talking play. Not much actually happens, but there is a lot of discussion. In one way it is a very good introduction to the theories and achievements of the two physicists; they use analogies involving skiing or cards to describe the concepts of uncertainty and complementarity, for example. There is also an element of repetition that reinforces some of the concepts being discussed. The characters themselves have an odd, formal way of interacting, but then that could be how people talk in the afterlife when English is not their first language! It does read fairly quickly, being all dialogue, but it is also something to stop and ponder for a while.

I'll say that you're right
If you just say that I'm right
Let's hit the hay and call this case closed

Frayn also provides an excellent postscript where he describes the historical events surrounding this meeting and provides some insights into the writing process. Also interesting is his discussion of Heisenberg's paper, the one that described what we know today as the uncertainty principle. Because Heisenberg originally wrote in German, there is something lost in the translation. The word he uses in his memoirs and the final version of the paper is "Unbestimmtheit," which doesn't have an exact equivalent but could be derived from "bestimmen", which means "to determine/to ascertain". So a more precise but less familiar translation might be "indeterminacy". The first draft of the paper used the word "Ungenauigheit", meaning "inexactness." Meanwhile, Bohr tended to use the word "Unsicherheit", meaning "unsureness", which is closer to the connotations that "uncertainty" has in English. It's a very interesting conundrum that the words used to describe the uncertainty principle are themselves uncertain when rendered in another language!

As a reading experience, this was a three-star, meaning that I liked it and it met my expectations. Extra half-star for the thought provoking that led me to make the connection with the song. I suspect I will be thinking about this book for a while. If you like science and plays that make you think, this might be the ticket for you.(less)

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Apr 08, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arts-and-historical

The Tony Award—winning play that soars at the intersection of science and art, Copenhagen is an explosive re-imagining of the mysterious wartime meeting between two Nobel laureates to discuss the atomic bomb.

In 1941 the German physicist Werner Heisenberg made a clandestine trip to Copenhagen to see his Danish counterpart and friend Niels Bohr. Their work together on quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle had revolutionized atomic physics. But now the world had changed and the two men we...more

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Dec 01, 2008 Cecilia rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: plays

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 digest along with int...more

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Jul 09, 2012 Brittany Petruzzi rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: plays, tony-winners

Frayn plays around with the effects that the real science of physics (specifically, quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle), unknown to us, may have on our philosophical perception of things and the way we think of mankind interacting with one another (or perhaps the way we shouldn't). Unfortunately for the reader of this playscript, the realization of what he's doing doesn't really come along until late in the third act. With a focused and determined director, however, I'm sure the ent...more

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Sep 09, 2012 Martina rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone interested in meaningful stuff

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, physics, philosophy

Frayn's rendition of the fateful meeting in Copenhagen in '41 was - wait for it! - very interesting. And yes, I couldn't resist making a Niels Bohr reference, although I don't think the play is nonsense. I think it's a very brave work, and excellently researched. Since I'm fairly well acquainted with the history of modern physics, I can tell that Frayn really put in a lot of effort in this work. (He had obviously read Heisenberg's Physics and philosophy :D) The development of quantum mechanics a...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Lily C. rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: summer-reads, never-finished, plays

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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Jan 27, 2013 Renate rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: play, history, science

I don't usually read plays. In fact, I cannot recall reading any since high school. So the joy I got out of reading this one was a pleasant surprise.

Brilliant! Really impressive how Michael Frayn has taken an idea from theoretical physics and turned it into a philosophical play. The dialogue goes back and forth, twirls and flows and makes you think.

A got hold of a copy of this play after being captivated by a production of Democracy: A Play at The Old Vic in 2012. A play that had barely any acti...more

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Feb 22, 2012 Therese rated it 4 of 5 stars

Lots of exposition, and Margrethe is barely a character, but all of that exposition was necessary considering the complexity of material that had to be dealt with, and once I had the background under our belt, the heights reached by the climax was remarkable to me. It's an excellent story, but I haven't seen a stage-production of this play, though, and suspect it could probably run a little long... Also, be sure to check out Copenhagen the movie with Daniel Craig and Stephen Rea, an excellent ab...more

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Sep 04, 2011 Suhrob rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 well. The use of physics
metaphors felt to me sometime sl...more

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Aug 08, 2011 Natalie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: plays, historical, have-to-think-books

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 bomb for Germany and...more

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Jul 31, 2010 Aaron rated it 2 of 5 stars

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 nothing...more

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Nov 15, 2008 Jae rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

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 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: plays-and-scripts, science-and-tech

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 moral...more

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Dec 11, 2012 Tin Wee rated it 5 of 5 stars

The last book to be read for my ethics class. This play explore the controversial meeting between Bohr and Heisenberg, and we are brought through different perspectives on what motivated the meeting, what went the minds of both scientists, and what each thought of the other. Themes explored: What is ethics - to what extent are we responsible for things we produce, but which people misuse? Can killing be justified? what makes a person 'bad' or 'good'? Good for a quick read: i finished in 2.5 hrs.

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May 29, 2012 Bennievermeer added it

A play based on quantum physics may sound like a recipe for heady abstraction, but Michael Frayn's 'Copenhagen' - 'Kopenhagen' in the current rendition by Het Nationale Toneel - is anything but. Focusing on a pivotal moment in 20st century history, it creates a suspenseful debate between three people, which at the same time dramatically illustrates the uncertainty principle.

Read my full review: http://www.brnrd.net/blog/archive/200...

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Oct 11, 2009 Veronica rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: drama

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

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About Michael Frayn

Michael Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy. His novels, such as Towards the End of the Morning, Headlong and Spies, have also been critical and commercial successes, making him one of the handful of writers in the English language to succeed in both drama and prose fiction. His works often rais...more

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Trivia About Copenhagen

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Quotes from Copenhagen

“Bohr: Heisenberg, I have to say - if people are to be measured strictly in terms of observable quantities...

Heisenberg: Then we should need a strange new quantum ethics.” — 4 people liked it

“Margrethe: And when all our eyes are closed, when even the ghosts have gone, what will be left of our
beloved world? Our ruined and dishonoured and beloved world?” — 2 people liked it

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