QED (play)
{{Short description|Play written by Peter Parnell}}
{{Italic title}}
QED is a play by American playwright Peter Parnell that chronicles significant events in the life of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman. It presents scenes from a fictional day in Feynman's life, less than two years before his death, interweaving many strands from his biography, from the Manhattan project to the Challenger disaster inquiry to more personal topics such as the death of Feynman's wife and his own fight with cancer. The play, which grew out of a collaboration between Parnell, actor Alan Alda, and director Gordon Davidson, premiered in 2001. The original production, directed by Davidson and starring Alda as Feynman, was performed first at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles and, from late 2001 to mid-2002, on Broadway.
Name
The name refers to both Quantum ElectroDynamics, a field in particle physics, and Q.E.D. ({{lang|la|quod erat demonstrandum}}), a phrase used at the end of a mathematical proof, to indicate completeness.
Plot
Set in June, 1986, less than two years before Feynman's death, in Feynman's office at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, the play follows Feynman through a day of his life. As the real Feynman does in his books What Do You Care What Other People Think? and Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!, the stage character talks directly to the audience; we learn from this and from phone calls with off-stage characters that Feynman is to appear that night playing his bongo drums in a student production of the musical South Pacific, that he is expecting a delegation from the Russian Republic of Tuva, which Feynman is whimsically determined to visit (as detailed in Ralph Leighton's book, Tuva or Bust!), and that he is eager to make his views known in the final report of the Rogers Commission charged with the Challenger disaster. From phone conversations between Feynman and his doctors, we also learn that Feynman's cancer has returned, and that his doctors are urging him to undergo further surgical procedures, which are not without their own risk. Feynman's conversation with the audience also touches on a number of additional topics well-known to readers of his autobiographical writings: the Manhattan project and safe-cracking, how he learned to draw, his father, as well as musings on physics and, more generally, on the nature of science and knowledge.{{Harvnb|Goodstein|2001}}
In the second act, the play returns to Feynman's study later at night on the same day, after the performance is over. We meet the only other character in addition to the main protagonist: a (fictional) young student by the name of Miriam Field, who has attended one of Feynman's lectures and both witnessed his bongo performance and attended the after-play party. Where Feynman had earlier grown dispirited both by his own condition and by memories of his long-dead wife, Miriam manages to pull him out of his depression. Feynman informs his doctors that he will consent to have surgery, after all; but requests that they awaken him from anesthesia if they determine that he is about to die intraoperatively, because "that would be an interesting experience".
History and productions
In the mid-1990s, Alan Alda, having read Feynman's autobiographical books, became intent on playing Feynman on stage. He consulted director Gordon Davidson at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, who suggested that playwright Peter Parnell be the play's author. Over the course of more than six years, the three went through many revisions in their combined effort to bring the many facets of Feynman's character to the stage.Ch. 12 in {{Harvnb|Alda|2007}}
The play premiered on March 25, 2001, at the Mark Taper Forum.A review is {{Harvnb|Goodstein|2001}} Later that year, the production went to Broadway, where it was performed 40 times between November 18, 2001 and June 20, 2002 at the Vivian Beaumont Theater.[http://www.ibdb.com/production.asp?ID=13181 IBDB entry] Six years later, Alda briefly revisited his role in a scenic reading at Columbia University's Miller Theatre as part of the 2008 World Science Festival, once more directed by Davidson.{{dead link|date=November 2013}}[https://web.archive.org/web/20080408045316/http://www.worldsciencefestival.com:80/2008-festival/events/all-events/qed-with-alan-alda Event description]. World Science Festival. Retrieved 2008-06-11. {{dead link|date=May 2016|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
The Chicago area premiere of QED on September 23, 2010, featured Rob Riley as Richard Feynman under the direction of Maureen Payne-Hahner. It was performed at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science of Northwestern University, and was produced by ETOPiA.[http://www.etopia.northwestern.edu ETOPiA: The Engineering Transdisciplinary Outreach Project in the Arts: Robert R. McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science: Northwestern University]
It was produced in Athens, Greece in October 2004[http://www.athens24.gr/going-out/theater/news_detail.html?id=16089 Press release for 2004 production at "Roes" theater.] with Yorgos Kotanidis as Richard Feynman, directed by Iossif Vardakis. It was a successful run, with a performance attended by Jim Al-Khalili. The production went on to perform the following year at a larger theater.[http://www.in2life.gr/culture/theatre/article/99080/qed-h-ypokritikh-ths-episthmonikhs-skepshs.html Review for the 2005 production at "Anesis" theater.][https://archive.today/20131030100028/http://www.enjoy.gr/cult/feynman/1702.html Review for the 2005 production at "Anesis" theater.][http://www.athens24.gr/going-out/theater/news_detail.html?id=16312 Review for the 2005 production at "Anesis" theater.] In 2009 it was staged in the virtual reality "Tholos" dome,[http://www.theatron254.gr/index.php?pid=6&eid=57 Presentation of the show at the "Tholos" site.] at the Hellenic Cosmos complex in Athens, once more playing to packed audiences. The show went on a tour of Greece in 2010[http://www.gossip-tv.gr/showbiz/story/28430/kotanides-periodeia-me-ergo-qed Announcement of the tour.][https://archive.today/20131030100053/http://www.inews.gr/59/kotanidis-periodeia-me-to-ergo-QED.htm Announcement of the tour.]
The national premiere for Italy of the play was translated and directed by Luca Giberti at the {{Interlanguage link multi|Stabile Theatre|it|3=Teatro di Genova}} in Genoa (Sala Duse), with Andrea Nicolini playing Feynman.[https://archive.today/20130415232956/http://www.teatro.org/spettacoli/duse/qed_un_giorno_nella_vita_di_richard_feynman_121_3455/ Event description]{{citation|title=Festival della Scienza programme entry |url=http://www.festival.infm.it/it/festival2005/evento.php?id=199 |access-date=2012-08-01 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060603095757/http://www.festival.infm.it/it/festival2005/evento.php?id=199 |archive-date=June 3, 2006 }}
The play was produced in Berkeley, CA by Indra’s Net Theater in Nov/Dec 2013 with Jeff Garrett playing Feynman and Bruce Coughran directing.{{Cite web|url=http://berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2013-12-13/article/41702|title = THEATER REVIEW: An Amazing Performance in INDra's NET "QED" at Berkeley City Club. Category: Arts & Events from the Berkeley Daily Planet}}
QED was produced in Philadelphia, PA by the Lantern Theater in Nov/Dec 2014 with Peter DeLaurier as Richard Feynman and M. Craig Getting directing.{{Cite web|url=http://www.lanterntheater.org/2015/qed.html|title = QED by Peter Parnell | 2014/15 Season | Lantern Theater Company}}
References
{{Reflist|30em}}
Bibliography
- {{Citation|last=Alda|first=Alan|title=Things I Overheard While Talking to Myself|year=2007|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-4000-6617-9|oclc=122309367|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/thingsioverheard00alda_2}}
- {{Citation|last=Goodstein |first=David |title=Feynman returns to centre stage |date=May 1, 2001 |journal=Physics World |volume=14 |issue=5 |page=45 |doi=10.1088/2058-7058/14/5/33 |url=http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/2389 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080624110335/http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/print/2389 |archive-date=June 24, 2008 |url-access=subscription }}
- {{Citation|last=Parnell|first=Peter|title=QED: A Play|publisher=Applause Books|year=2002|isbn=978-1-55783-592-5|oclc=50004999}}
- A brief excerpt from the play was published as [https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C0DE4DD123FF933A15757C0A9649C8B63 THINK TANK: How Does a Photon Decide Where to Go? That's the Quantum Mystery] in The New York Times (April 20, 2002)
External links
- {{ibdb title |id= 13181 |title= QED }}
{{Richard Feynman|state=collapsed}}