Copenhagen at the Herald Theatre

By SUSAN BUDD

HERALD THEATRE, Auckland - "Why?" is a question constantly posed in Michael Frayn's complex, thoughtful and fascinating play that, in examining the reasons for the meeting of two physicists, plumbs mysteries not only of science but also of philosophy.

Why does Werner Heisenberg, a nuclear physicist working for the Nazi Government, visit his old teacher and colleague Niels Bohr in Copenhagen in 1941? Why did Bohr never reveal what was said? Perhaps, as he says in the play, "Some questions have no answers to find."

Frayn seeks answers by setting the two physicists and Margrete, Bohr's wife, in limbo where they play versions of what happened that day. But truth is as hard to find as answers where memory is as subjective as experience.

The fascination of the play lies in the exposition of the tortuous, and, usually to a lay audience, impenetrable journey of nuclear physics to the explosion of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima - a journey that becomes a metaphor for the individual's search for truth and meaning.

Heisenberg's uncertainty principle and Bohr's complementarity principle, together known as the Copenhagen interpretation, are explained in impassioned argument between the two men and in Margrete's pungent, down-to-earth declarations.

Not only are the characters contradictory, but so is their relationship. Heisenberg admits complicity by pleading justification and Bohr adopts the mantle of the better man, but proves more involved in the development of the bomb.

Ambiguities abound, subtly illustrated by the atom, coloured in shades of grey, that forms the stage on which they dance their measured pavane of memory.

David Aston captures Heisenberg's mixed shyness and dash with boyish energy, while Stuart Devenie plays Bohr as a man held in such tension he threatens to shatter.