Professor David Peimer
“Copenhagen”, A Play by Michael Frayn: Time to Reflect
Summary
Rosh Hashanah is a time for reflection, accountability, consequences, and actions. In that spirit, Professor David Peimer discusses Michael Frayn’s 1998 play Copenhagen, which touches very profoundly on those same themes. The play is based on an event that occurred in Copenhagen in 1941, a meeting between the physicists Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, who had been Bohr’s student.
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing in New York, UK, Berlin, EU Parliament (Brussels), Athens, Budapest, Zululand and more. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published widely with books including: Armed Response: Plays from South Africa, the digital book, Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.
Oh, there’s a long story, but he became fascinated and obsessed and, I think, to his credit, totally, that he chose this and made it accessible and can stimulate such debate from a play. I love it when theatre can do that. It can be political. it can be anything that stimulates.