For all that, as term-time settles upon us and the nights grow cooler, the boys and girls of summer can look back on their work with pride and raise each other one last glass of lemonade. - Matthew Hudson

THEATER IN THE BIG APPLE

CopenHagen

Many people attend the theater to be transported. For them, the hallmark of a good production is that they forget at some point who and where they are and become consumed by the action on stage. Within this frame of reference, Michael Frayn's Copenhagen is quite a bore. It has a remarkable capacity to keep the audience in its place. Dealing with issues of physical and historical certainty through a meeting between the physicists Neils Bohr (Phillip Bosco) and Werner Heisenberg (Michael Cumpsty), the show is performed on a bare set designed to resemble a Bohr model of an atom. It would be a real shame, though, to write off this show. In fact, if given the attention it deserves, the play proves as thought-provoking and as captivating as any new play in recent memory. The acting, particularly that of Tony-winner Blair Brown, is as intense and focused as the direction. It is difficult to summarize the questions that this play raises or its structure without revealing too much. Suffice it to say that though you may not forget yourself as you watch Copenhagen, neither will you forget Copenhagen for quite some time.

The Music Man