Plays 4: Copenhagen / Democracy / Afterlife

by Michael Frayn

Michael Frayn is one of the great playwrights of our time, enjoying international acclaim and prestige. This anthology contains three of his strongest titles of serious Copenhagen, Democracy and Afterlife . The volume features the definitive version of each play together with an introduction by the author and a chronology of his work. Copenhagen : 'The most invigorating and ingenious play of ideas in many a year and a work of art that humanizes physics in a way no other has done' New York Times
'Michael Frayn's tremendous new play is a piece of history, an intellectual thriller, a psychological investigation and a moral tribunal in full session.' Sunday Times
'A profound and haunting meditation on the mysteries of human motivation.' Independent
Democracy : 'Michael Frayn's complex and richly rewarding new play...is wonderfully alert to the piquant paradoxes and ironic twists of this intensely tricky period in Germany's conversation with itself.' Independent
'What makes Frayn's play essential viewing is its Schiller-like grasp of practical politics' Guardian
'Michael Frayn's Democracy ...is one of those rare dramas that don't just dare to think big but that fully translate their high aspirations to the stage, with sharp style and thrilling clarity' New York Times
Afterlife : 'This play is almost literally brilliant - it glitters, shines and gleams with Frayn's trademark perceptive wit as it sends up the whole concept of theatre in the process of telling a strong, essentially tragic biographical story' The Stage

Genres: Drama, 20th Century, British Literature, Plays

430 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Michael Frayn is an English playwright and novelist. He is best known as the author of the farce Noises Off and the dramas Copenhagen and Democracy. His novels, such as Towards the End of the Morning, Headlong and Spies, have also been critical and commercial successes, making him one of the handful of writers in the English language to succeed in both drama and prose fiction. His works often raise philosophical questions in a humorous context. Frayn's wife is Claire Tomalin, the biographer and literary journalist.

Reviews

[Paul LaFontaine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Famous nuclear scientists Werner Heisenberg and Neils Bohr have passed away but their spirits try and made sense of why Heisenberg visited Bohr in Copenhagen in 1941. Was it to help Bohr escape German occupation? To try and learn about the Allied nuclear program? Or to enlist Bohr into the German nuclear program? As the play ends the questions of motivation still remain.

Frayn takes the speculation about the controversial meeting and wraps it in two fictional, but interesting characters. What at first seems straightforward begins to be very complicated as the two old friends, joined by Bohr's wife, talk through what was happening at the time, and what they were thinking. I enjoyed this play.

Highly recommend.

[Chuck O'Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Enjoyable and Copenhagen helped me better see the style of what I am writing now. I liked the author's commentary on each play's subject as post-script to the plays. His work however has a distancing effect which probably is closed with performance because the intricate structure of the plays and their back and forth dialogue would be understood intuitively if seen. I want to read more his stuff.