Did he stop the Germans from producing their own nuclear bomb - or was he a Nazi sympathiser? Michael Frayn's fascinating, scintillating philosophical teaser about the German physicist Werner Heisenberg's visit in 1941 to his Danish mentor, Niels Bohr, and its possible consequences posits the question as only one of many in one of the most intellectually thrilling plays of the decade.
Imagine Stoppard on speed. Imagine a physics and philosophical lecture in which you are dragged into the very nucleus of debate on the nature of the atom - nuclear and human. What are the motivations that lie behind man's insatiable drive for knowledge and whither will it take us? To oblivion, suggests Frayn through the mouth of Bohr, the father of fission, in a play that explores the impact of human behaviour and personal motivation on pure ''abstract'' thinking to breath-taking effect.
With the timing, as so often, eerily coinciding with public events (the resurgence of the nuclear arms race in Asia) Frayn's play could hardly be more pertinent - or Michael Blakemore's production more impeccable.
Peter J Davison's built-up back wall turns the square-boxed Cottesloe into a hermetic rotunda housing just three characters - Matthew Marsh's urgent, ambiguous acolyte, David Burke's paternalistic Bohr, and Sara Kestelman's eagle-eyed Margrethe Bohr missing nothing.
A tale of memory, friendship, loss, responsibility, the male/ female equation, history, and so much more (Heisenberg was credited with the formulation of the scientific theory known as The Uncertainty Principle) the cry of ''but this is a radio play'' will undoubtedly be heard in some quarters. In reality the impact of watching these three reacting on each other is nothing less than explosive. Fabulous.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article