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Michael Frayn, Copenhagen (play)
Jun. 12th, 2012 09:42 pmI told one of my new neighbours that I was going to a play in which three people spend two & a half hours talking about quantum physics. She looked alarmed and said she herself was considering the latest Roger Hall play, at which point I refrained from saying what I think about Roger Hall’s plays, given that she’d offered me and the dog a lift to the dog park and I didn’t particularly want to walk back.
Anyway. The other Michael Frayn play I’ve seen is Noises Off, which is brilliant, (I’ve seen it in three different productions as well as the film, and I’d cheerfully go again). Copenhagen was also brilliant but much more serious, and also managed to make two & a half hours of, basically, exposition (the three characters narrate their thoughts and reactions, analyse them, disagree over memories etc, and although they move round it’s really not at all about action) absolutely fascinating. At its core, it’s the story of a meeting between Niels Bohr and his wife Margarethe, and Werner Heisenberg, in Occupied Denmark in 1941. In telling this, it is about science, and memory, and ethics, and I have massive admiration for the actors, who have to memorise a very lengthy script, as well as convey understanding of classical and quantum physics, nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons and politics.
Both Noises Off and Copenhagen are also about repetition. In Noises Off, it’s the play within a play that repeats, in Copenhagen it’s the meeting. But in Noises Off with each repetition there’s an increase in chaos, a falling apart, until the characters aren’t even capable of language. In Copenhagen, repetition doesn’t so much increase chaos as demonstrate uncertainty, and how each individual creates their own version of events. I liked it a lot.
(for the curious - what I think is that Roger Hall plays are for smug middle class white people who want to feel validated as such, plus getting brownie points for supporting “the theatre”. The last one I went to – solely due to having season tickets – was called Four Flat Whites in Italy, and managed to annoy me in many ways, particularly by only giving one character anything resembling an arc, but doing so solely that the character would get over the grief of losing her daughter in order to have sex with her husband, as it wasn’t fair on him to not get any for so long. He had caused the accident that killed their daughter, but his reaction to this by refusing to drive anywhere was presented as much more reasonable and not at all something that needed to be overcome. The staging was good.)
Anyway. The other Michael Frayn play I’ve seen is Noises Off, which is brilliant, (I’ve seen it in three different productions as well as the film, and I’d cheerfully go again). Copenhagen was also brilliant but much more serious, and also managed to make two & a half hours of, basically, exposition (the three characters narrate their thoughts and reactions, analyse them, disagree over memories etc, and although they move round it’s really not at all about action) absolutely fascinating. At its core, it’s the story of a meeting between Niels Bohr and his wife Margarethe, and Werner Heisenberg, in Occupied Denmark in 1941. In telling this, it is about science, and memory, and ethics, and I have massive admiration for the actors, who have to memorise a very lengthy script, as well as convey understanding of classical and quantum physics, nuclear reactors, nuclear weapons and politics.
Both Noises Off and Copenhagen are also about repetition. In Noises Off, it’s the play within a play that repeats, in Copenhagen it’s the meeting. But in Noises Off with each repetition there’s an increase in chaos, a falling apart, until the characters aren’t even capable of language. In Copenhagen, repetition doesn’t so much increase chaos as demonstrate uncertainty, and how each individual creates their own version of events. I liked it a lot.
(for the curious - what I think is that Roger Hall plays are for smug middle class white people who want to feel validated as such, plus getting brownie points for supporting “the theatre”. The last one I went to – solely due to having season tickets – was called Four Flat Whites in Italy, and managed to annoy me in many ways, particularly by only giving one character anything resembling an arc, but doing so solely that the character would get over the grief of losing her daughter in order to have sex with her husband, as it wasn’t fair on him to not get any for so long. He had caused the accident that killed their daughter, but his reaction to this by refusing to drive anywhere was presented as much more reasonable and not at all something that needed to be overcome. The staging was good.)
