COPENHAGEN, BY MICHAEL FRAYN
MIKE LEVY TALKS TO MALCOLM SINCLAIR ABOUT HIS ROLE AS THE SCIENTIST NEILS BOHR.
Two questions about Denmark (nothing to do with football). Is Copenhagen truly ‘wonderful wonderful’? And who was the greatest Dane? Not Hamlet (he was not to be), neither Hans Christian Andersen (Danny Kaye ruined his chance) nor the chef who invented the eponymous pastry (he was actually Viennese). No it was surely Neils Bohr, the Carlsberg of scientists – probably the best of the best.
In Michael Frayn’s classic play ‘Copenhagen’ Bohr’s complex post Einsteinian world is laid before the audience in a rich mix of quantum physics, atomic theory and moral dilemmas as deep as the Kattegat. Speaking to Malcolm Sinclair who plays the Danish genius it is clear that this play was tailor made for Cambridge. There is a lot of science and philosophy, a drama to stretch the mind and get you talking physics in the interval.
Though not any kind of physicist, Sinclair admits to learning a lot and being fascinated by the man who was in a way a groundbreaker for good – the science of electronics but also for evil: nuclear warfare. That’s not to say that he understands everything: ‘We had a Zoom meeting with Michael Frayn and I wanted to ask him about my big speech in Act 2’. It was about Einstein and the turning over of accepted ‘laws’ of physics not to mention a new understanding of our universe. The premise of the play is the mysterious real-life meeting in Nazi occupied Denmark between the Jewish Bohr and a former colleague, Werner Heisenberg, the equally brilliant German physicist best known for his ‘uncertainty principle’. Heisenberg went on to try to develop the nuclear bomb for the Fuehrer; Bohr worked for the Americans. Once friends and colleagues, each now sits across a great divide.
How have audiences been reacting to the play now on a short tour? Sinclair notes - ‘Matinee audiences tend to be more relaxed and laugh at the jokes’ Evening folk seem to be a bit more po faced, he observes. Of course he is aware that in a Cambridge audience, he will no doubt have world experts sitting in the front stalls of the Arts. ‘The pressure is on not to make any mistakes’, says Sinclair who is a very seasoned actor.
Malcolm Sinclair was actually last seen in Cambridge with David Haig’s wonderful D-Day play, ‘Pressure’. He played General Eisenhower and I remembered writing that ‘I liked Ike’. Plans are afoot for a tour of that play including Toronto. Like all actors, Sinclair was champing at the bit to get on stage after a year in lockdown. But like most of us, he can’t be sure what the future will bring. Good or bad? Here, there or everywhere – at the same time? A bit like quantum physics?
Looking at the reviews from the tour so far and hearing Sinclair’s clear admiration for the play, it is surely going to be a Wonderful, Wonderful ‘Copenhagen’.
‘Copenhagen’ can be seen at the Cambridge Arts Theatre, 6 St Edward’s Passage, Cambridge, CB2 3PJ
Dates: Monday 12 – Saturday 17 July
Monday – Saturday, 7.30pm and Thursday & Saturday, 2.30pm: £20/£25/£30/£35
All ticket prices include a £3 per-ticket booking fee
Box Office: 01223 503333 / www.cambridgeartstheatre.com
