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Until 22 September

Photo credit: Conrad Blakemore

What was the purpose of the visit made by German Werner Heisenberg (Charles Edwards) to his friend Danish physicist Niels Bohr (Paul Jesson) as the Second World War raged? The answer is by no means swift in coming, but it is a compelling journey. Which is just as well; this is not a play that allows for wandering concentration.

The ghosts of Heisenberg, Bohr and his wife Margrethe return to the night of Heisenberg’s visit in 1941 to scrutinise the intent and rationale behind the house call. Eminently bright and highly respected, the younger man’s nation has occupied his elder’s country, thus thorough examination of several theories is necessary.

With a shared passion for scientific certainty the coals are raked over with forensic-like attention to detail, stirring human nature into technical hypotheses. Tempered by Margrethe’s perceptiveness and calm, blistering disagreement between the two men is revealing, but while such convulsions are fascinating it is the historical element that gives the play ominous depth: the creation of the atom bomb and its monstrous impact.

Director Michael Blakemore succeeds in maintaining a fluidity that is almost balletic. With a small cast and a stark set the focus on the trio is as intense as the play itself, but they impress throughout.

Patricia Hodge as Margrethe is breathtakingly good; elegant, circumspect and sharp. Charles Edwards as Heisenberg and Paul Jesson as Bohr are equally excellent, both absolutely convincing as boffins who, despite their scientific and mathematical prowess, are nevertheless vulnerable to human frailty.

Michael Frayn’s play is as much about morals as it is the quest for knowledge and you are likely to come away as many questions as answers. Oddly, this is strangely satisfying.