COPENHAGEN By Michael Frayn To Open At Theatre Royal Bath Before UK Tour

Theatre Royal Bath Productions and Jonathan Church Theatre Productions will present COPENHAGEN by Michael Frayn, starring Philip Arditti, Haydn Gwynne, and Malcolm Sinclair which will open at Theatre Royal Bath for three weeks from 9 June before touring to Southampton, Malvern, Cambridge, and Kingston-Upon-Thames.

Frayn's multi award-winning play will be directed by Emma Howlett, with original direction by Polly Findlay who was mid-rehearsals and due to open the production as part of Theatre Royal Bath's 2020 Autumn Welcome Back Season before being forced to postpone amidst second national lockdown.

In Nazi-occupied Copenhagen, in 1941, a clandestine encounter is known to have taken place between two Nobel Prize winning physicists, Dane Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, a German. The men were old friends and long-term colleagues, but now found themselves on opposite sides of the divide.

Under the watchful eye of Bohr's wife, Margrethe, Frayn speculates on the debates which might have taken place; an exchange of transformative ideas which had huge implications for both the Nazis and the Allies, and for our world today.

This totally absorbing historical detective story, conjured from a smattering of scientific facts, is a daring, fascinating and stimulating drama that enjoyed a hugely acclaimed run at The National Theatre before transferring to the West End and Broadway and winning the 2000 Tony Award for Best Play.

Michael Frayn is a journalist and writer, whose diverse range of plays includes Noises Off, Donkey's Years and Benefactors.

Philip Arditti has recently worked with the Globe Ensemble, a ten strong company of performers producing all of Shakespeare's History plays at The Globe Theatre in London. He has played Oliver in As You Like It, and the high priest Caiaphas in Salome, both for The National Theatre. Recent screen credits include Dr Silva in the psychological thriller series Sanctuary; Dan Brown thriller Inferno, directed by Ron Howard and BBC series Honourable Women. He first became known for his portrayal of Uday Hussein in the BBC/HBO series House of Saddam.

Haydn Gwynne is one of our most popular stage and screen actors. She rose to fame as newsreader Alex in Channel 4's Drop The Dead Donkey, for which she was nominated the BAFTA for Light Entertainment Performance, and has won the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Featured Actress in a Musical for her role in the Broadway production of Billy Elliot The Musical. Other notable stage roles include Margaret Thatcher in Peter Morgan's The Audienceopposite Helen Mirren, and Queen Elizabeth in Sam Mendes' Richard III at the Old Vic. Her numerous screen credits include the regular role of Dr Graham in Peak Practice, and appearances in Midsomer Murders, Silent Witness, Rome and Death in Paradise.

Malcolm Sinclair is an Olivier Award nominee for his roles as Eisenhower in Pressure, and Major Flack in Privates on Parade. Other credits in a career spanning more than thirty years include regular appearances for the RSC and National Theatre, film roles in Casino Royale and V for Vendetta, and on TV in Judge John Deed, Silk and Parade's End.

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