The Conventional Housewife Takes on Quantum Physics: The Role of Margrethe in Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen

What does it take to make a Tony award winning play? In the case of Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen, it is not the bright lights, extravagant sets, or costume changes. Instead, it is a blank stage, three characters and their words. Written with absolutely no stage direction, Frayn’s play is not about the physical components of a production. Using the laws of quantum physics, Frayn produces a play wrapped in enough controversy and drama that big stage productions are unnecessary. The unique content and features of Frayn’s play are what draw an audience and make his play so astounding. Based on the 1941 meeting between the physicists Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg in Copenhagen, Denmark, Frayn looks to add to the ever-growing mystery surrounding the reason why these two men met in the midst of World War II. With Heisenberg working for the Nazi regime to build an atomic bomb and Bohr’s Jewish background, the subject of the meeting has been a hotly debated issue for many years. Bohr and Heisenberg were even unsure of what happened that day in 1941. Frayn’s Copenhagen proposes three different hypotheses as to what brought the two men together, presented in three different retellings of the story by the characters. What makes Frayn’s play interesting, however, is not his ability to give one definite answer to this controversial issue. Instead, Frayn adds another element to th