QED: A Play - Inspired by the Writings of Richard Feynman and andquot;Tuva or Bust!andquot; by Ralph Leighton)] [Author: Peter Parnell] published on

by Peter Parnell

ÊQEDÊ is a seductive mix of science human affections moral courage and comic eccentricity... not to be missed. ä John Simon ÊNew York MagazineÊÞÞThe play itself is a kind of proof dramatically illustrating how a man who happens to be a genius elegantly and movingly works through the human problem of how to face the end of his life. ä Nancy Franklin The New YorkerÞÞWith a moving and powerful introduction from Alan Alda.ÞÞWho knew that quantum electrodynamics could make for a dramatic read? In the hands of the late great physicist Richard Feynman it does. Feynman's theory of QED is just one of the many topics the playwright Peter Parnell explores in this nearly-one-man show a recent Broadway triumph for star Alan Alda as Feynman.ÞÞSet in Feynman's office on the weekend of his realization that he has terminal cancer this play is an intellectual tour-de-force that captures the unique hilarious and puckish genius that Feynman was. From his work on the Manhattan Project to the death of his beloved first wife from his mission to reconstruct the Challenger space shuttle tragedy to his Nobel-prize winning physics ideas the resume of Feynman's life is fascinating. But Parnell gives us more letting fill in the details of his life. When he reads a letter he wrote to his wife after her death or flirts with a student or chillingly recalls walking around Manhattan calculating the damage an atomic bomb could do we grow to love the man behind the scientist. And we read in fascination as he puzzles out the problem of his own death.ÞÞCombining the current interest in science and math in the entertainment world with one of the most entertaining scientists in U.S. history QED is a tour-de-force.

Genres: Plays, Fiction, Drama

Paperback

First published September 1, 1998

About the author

Peter Parnell is an American playwright, television writer, and children's author whose work spans Broadway, Off-Broadway, and television. He adapted The Hunchback of Notre Dame for Disney Theatricals and is known for stage plays such as Trumpery, QED, and The Cider House Rules, the latter earning him several awards. He has worked as a producer and writer on TV series including The West Wing, The Guardian, and BrainDead. With his husband, psychiatrist Justin Richardson, he co-authored the acclaimed and frequently challenged children's book And Tango Makes Three, which has received multiple literary honors. Parnell is Vice-President of the Dramatists Guild of America.

Reviews

[Ethan Dursteler · Rating 4 out of 5]

First book of 2019. Some of my favorite quotes:

“[...] on the contrary, we know quite a lot about quantum physics, and that’s why we can’t talk about it. It’s everything we don’t know about like how to solve poverty, and lower crime, and stop drugs, that we can talk about!”

“See, Nature is always out there, she’s always doing what she does, and it’s our job to try and trick her into revealing her secrets to us. It’s a dance, because Nature doesn’t always give up her secrets easily.”

“[...] not knowing is much more interesting than believing an answer which might be wrong.”

[Martin Denton · Rating 3 out of 5]

QED is a fascinating glimpse at the life, work, and thoughts of Richard Feynmann. Feynmann (1918-88) was one of the youngest scientists involved in the Manhattan Project, where the first atomic bomb was developed; later he became an enormously successful physicist and physics professor, eventually winning the Nobel Prize. At the end of his esteemed career, while battling cancer, he joined the investigation of the explosion that destroyed the space shuttle Challenger and made headlines again when he discovered that it was the tiny "o" rings, unable to withstand the cold temperatures on the day of the launch, that had caused the catastrophe.

Feynmann was an iconoclast and a free thinker, at the mercy of a constantly curious, questing mind. It is this mind that playwright Peter Parnell exposes in this intriguing play, as we watch the 68-year-old Feynmann prepare for a lecture on "What We Know." As he writes--or finds excuses not to--Feynmann reminisces about his accomplishments, practices his drumming for a campus revival of South Pacific, and dreams of a planned trip to Tuva, an obscure Siberian province the name of whose unpronounceable capital city he happened upon quite by accident.

What's revealed here is an intellect of heroic proportions, not least because it comes with a conscience of equal size. Responsibility for creating the first nuclear weapon becomes Feynmann's greatest burden: this theme has real resonance in our current, chaotic world.

I've never read any of Feynmann's popular works, let alone his more scientific ones, so I welcomed QED as a chance to quickly learn a bit about this remarkable man.

[Jessada Karnjana · Rating 5 out of 5]

บทละครสั้น ๆ 2 องก์ 1 ฉาก เรื่องราวใน 1 วันของนักวิทยาศาสตร์ผู้ยิ่งใหญ่ ริคชาร์ด ฟายมันน์ ด้วยตัวละครเพียง 2 ตัว ฟายมันน์ กับ นักศึกษาสาวชั้นเรียนฟิสิกส์ เอ็กซ์ มิเรียม ฟีลด์ มันทำให้เห็นว่าคนเขียนบททำการบ้านมาดี และยัดการบ้านที่ทำมาลงในบทพูดได้ดูแนบเนียน ละครนั้นสั้น แต่พาดพิงถึงช่วงชีวิตที่ยาว ทั้งตลก ทั้งสะท้อนความเป็นนักคิดที่ยิ่งใหญ่ และความวุ่นวายในวันเสาร์ที่ฟายมันน์หลบมาตีกลองพักผ่อน และค้นคว้าเรื่องคว๊าก

[Seán Mee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely awful.

Symptomatic of the cult surrounding Feynman. A brilliant physicist who undoubtedly made my work in the field easier and more convenient even today. Also arrogant, a misogynist, and just a terrible role model.

Some of the content honestly made me uncomfortable. Wish we would stop valorizing him as the only physicist who had a personality. His was pretty unbearable anyway.

[Hollie · Rating 3 out of 5]

It feels unfair to give this a star rating because a play is meant to be watched, emotions felt through the actors, and I read this like a gremlin in the middle of the night. If I could have watched Alan Alda as Richard Feynman play the bongos on stage then this would have been a five star piece.

[Jackie Knappenberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice play, but not super remarkable. Also, that thing that went on between Feynman and the student was weird af.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was beautiful. A must read for all Feynman fans. I can only hope that I'll one day see this on stage, perhaps with Alan Alda as the lead again.

[Tristan MacAvery · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading a play (as opposed to seeing it performed) has its drawbacks. In this case, however, there are two excellent points in its favor -- a fascinating main character who is marvelously developed by the playwright, and Alan Alda. It's easy to hear him speaking each line, giving himself over to the words, the spirit, the captured essence of scientist Richard Feynman and -- by his own admission -- being incapable of truly capturing Feynman.

The "QED" of the title is not "Quod Erat Demonstrandum" (Latin, "that which was to be proved," frequently written in triumph at the bottom of a mathematical proof) but "Quantum Electrodynamics," which was Feynman's primary field of study. At the same time, however, Feynman studied everything, proving and reproving the very essence of Nature to himself, repeatedly. In this play, we see the good doctor talking about everything and, in doing so, showing us how we are all experimenters, scientists, living beings who by our nature must question everything, including ourselves. In the end, we will probably never get even close the the whole answer, but the journey... the journey is (to spell the word as Feynman pronounces it in the play) in-ter-est-ing!

[Alastair Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

For those of us not lucky enough to see Alan Alda play Richard Feynman, this script and a little imagination are a reasonable compromise. (Anyone with enough exposure to M*A*S*H reruns should have an internalised Alda accent on standby for this very occasion.)

A warm, respectful and, by most accounts, pretty accurate tribute to a fascinating man. I'm glad I made the effort to find a copy.

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This play about Richard Feynman was interesting, but a lot of the stories were pulled from Feynman's books and I think Feynman did a better job of telling his own stories. I also think I liked this play more before reading "Wit," which made me remember just how good a play really can be.

[Janet Zehr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Captures the essence of Feynman

I would have loved to see this play performed. Richard Feynman was a true genius, but also a very human being. He had a passion for life and for understanding nature's secrets.