Tuesday, January 22, 2008
Breakfast in “Copenhagen”
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Your brain craves the same post-holiday attention that you’ve been giving your body. So skip the gym next Friday morning and head to the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge for a special 10AM performance of Michael Frayn’s classic intellectual drama, “Copenhagen.”
According to the A.R.T. press release, the play “chronicles the historic 1941 meeting of German physicist Werner Heisenberg with his former colleague and Danish counterpart Niels Bohr. The friends found themselves on opposing sides of the war, and embroiled in a race to create the atom bomb. Why Heisenberg went to Copenhagen and what he wanted to say to Bohr has captivated the interest of scientists and historians since.”
According to the critics, “ART veterans Will LeBow and Karen MacDonald bring a warmth and humor often missing from other productions of “Copenhagen.” LeBow’s Bohr is charming, playful but not without a sense of his own stature in the scientific community. MacDonald’s Margrethe is more protective of her husband than a cynical observer here. As Heisenberg, John Kuntz lets an almost robotic, anxious manner gradually give way to something more passionate and real. The complexity and sheer volume of their dialogue is impressive, and it’s a tribute to director Scott Zigler that the cast does not seem choreographed. The words are allowed to bear their own dramatic, natural weight.
As in set designer David Reynoso’s massive isotope, which looms over the spare set, the three actors move, as real human beings do, through a maze of language and memory and perspective in search of an elusive, objective truth. Meanwhile, above them, light, and time, and space are moving, too.”
Subscribers of Misstropolis are welcome to join the exclusive “Breakfast at the A.R.T.” group for this performance, which includes a pre-show introduction (at 9:30 AM) with the A.R.T.’s acting Artistic Director Gideon Lester, and a post performance meeting with the actors.
Tickets are $35 in advance, $40 at the door, half off the regular performance price, and a complimentary breakfast will be provided by the South End Buttery.
To book online, go to http://www.amrep.org/breakfast
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