QED (play)
Encyclopedia
QED is a play
by American playwright Peter Parnell
, which chronicles (part of) a day in the life of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman
. It presents scenes from a day in Feynman's life, less than two years before his death, interweaving many strands from Feynman's biography, from the Manhattan project
to the Challenger 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 was performed first at the Mark Taper Forum
in Los Angeles and, from late 2001 to mid-2002, on Broadway
, directed by Davidson and starring Alda as Feynman.
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 drum
s 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
.
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.
at the Mark Taper Forum
in Los Angeles
, who suggested that playwright Peter Parnell
as 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.
The play premiered on March 25, 2001, at the Mark Taper Forum. 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 Theatre
. 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.
The Chicago area premiere of QED on September 23, 2010, featured Rob Riley as Richard Feynman under the direction of Maureen Payne-Hahner performed at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science of Northwestern University, produced by ETOPiA.
Play (theatre)
A play is a form of literature written by a playwright, usually consisting of scripted dialogue between characters, intended for theatrical performance rather than just reading. There are rare dramatists, notably George Bernard Shaw, who have had little preference whether their plays were performed...
by American playwright Peter Parnell
Peter Parnell
Peter Parnell is an American playwright. His plays include The Cider House Rules, Flaubert's Latest, Hyde in Hollywood, An Imaginary Life, QED, Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket, Romance Language, Scooter Thomas Makes It to the Top of the World, and Sorrows of Stephen.Parnell is also noted for...
, which chronicles (part of) a day in the life of Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman
Richard Feynman
Richard Phillips Feynman was an American physicist known for his work in the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, the theory of quantum electrodynamics and the physics of the superfluidity of supercooled liquid helium, as well as in particle physics...
. It presents scenes from a day in Feynman's life, less than two years before his death, interweaving many strands from Feynman's biography, from the Manhattan project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
to the Challenger 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
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...
and director Gordon Davidson
Gordon Davidson
Gordon Davidson is an American stage- and film director.-External links:...
, premiered in 2001. The original production was performed first at the Mark Taper Forum
Mark Taper Forum
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739 seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles...
in Los Angeles and, from late 2001 to mid-2002, on Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, directed by Davidson and starring Alda as Feynman.
Plot
Set in June, 1986, less than two years before Feynman's death, in Feynman's office at the California Institute of TechnologyCalifornia Institute of Technology
The California Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Pasadena, California, United States. Caltech has six academic divisions with strong emphases on science and engineering...
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?
What Do You Care What Other People Think?
"What Do You Care What Other People Think?": Further Adventures of a Curious Character is the second of two books consisting of transcribed and edited oral reminiscences from American physicist Richard Feynman. It follows Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!The book presents his life as a series of...
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 drum
Bongo drum
Bongo or bongos are a Cuban percussion instrument consisting of a pair of single-headed, open-ended drums attached to each other. The drums are of different size: the larger drum is called in Spanish the hembra and the smaller the macho...
s in a student production of the musical South Pacific
South Pacific (musical)
South Pacific is a musical with music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Oscar Hammerstein II and book by Hammerstein and Joshua Logan. The story draws from James A. Michener's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1947 book Tales of the South Pacific, weaving together characters and elements from several of its...
, that he is expecting a delegation from the Russian Republic of Tuva
Tuva
The Tyva Republic , or Tuva , is a federal subject of Russia . It lies in the geographical center of Asia, in southern Siberia. The republic borders with the Altai Republic, the Republic of Khakassia, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Irkutsk Oblast, and the Republic of Buryatia in Russia and with Mongolia to the...
, which Feynman is whimsically determined to visit (as detailed in Ralph Leighton
Ralph Leighton
Ralph Leighton is a biographer, film producer, and friend of the late physicist Richard Feynman. He recorded Feynman relating stories of his life. Leighton has released some of the recordings as The Feynman Tapes. These interviews became the basis for the books Surely You're Joking, Mr...
's book, Tuva or Bust
Tuva or Bust
Tuva or Bust! is a book by Ralph Leighton about the author and his friend Richard Feynman's attempt to travel to Tuva.The introduction explains how Feynman challenged Leighton, at the time a high school math teacher, "Whatever happened to Tannu Tuva?" Since Feynman had a reputation as a prankster...
), 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
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
and safe-cracking
Safe-cracking
Safe-cracking is the process of opening a safe without either the combination or key. It may also refer to a computer hacker's attempts to break into a secured computer system, in which case it may be shortened to "cracking" or black hat hacking....
, how he learned to draw
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
, his father, as well as musings on physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
and, more generally, on the nature of science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...
and knowledge
Knowledge
Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...
.
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.
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 DavidsonGordon Davidson
Gordon Davidson is an American stage- and film director.-External links:...
at the Mark Taper Forum
Mark Taper Forum
The Mark Taper Forum is a 739 seat thrust stage at the Los Angeles Music Center built by Welton Becket and Associates on the Bunker Hill section of downtown Los Angeles...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, who suggested that playwright Peter Parnell
Peter Parnell
Peter Parnell is an American playwright. His plays include The Cider House Rules, Flaubert's Latest, Hyde in Hollywood, An Imaginary Life, QED, Rise and Rise of Daniel Rocket, Romance Language, Scooter Thomas Makes It to the Top of the World, and Sorrows of Stephen.Parnell is also noted for...
as 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.
The play premiered on March 25, 2001, at the Mark Taper Forum. Later that year, the production went to Broadway
Broadway theatre
Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 40 professional theatres with 500 or more seats located in the Theatre District centered along Broadway, and in Lincoln Center, in Manhattan in New York City...
, where it was performed 40 times between November 18, 2001 and June 20, 2002 at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre
Vivian Beaumont Theatre
The Vivian Beaumont Theater is a theatre located in the Lincoln Center complex at 150 West 65th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The structure was designed by Finnish American architect Eero Saarinen, and Jo Mielziner was responsible for the design of the stage and interior.The Vivian...
. Six years later, Alda briefly revisited his role in a scenic reading at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
's Miller Theatre
Miller Theatre
Miller Theatre at Columbia University is located on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University. It is a performing arts producer dedicated to developing and presenting new music....
as part of the 2008 World Science Festival
World Science Festival
The World Science Festival is a science festival held in New York City that is held annually in the summer. The 2008 inaugural festival was held May 28 – June 1 and consisted mainly of panel discussions and on-stage conversations, accompanied by multimedia presentations.The festival was the...
, once more directed by Davidson.
The Chicago area premiere of QED on September 23, 2010, featured Rob Riley as Richard Feynman under the direction of Maureen Payne-Hahner performed at the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science of Northwestern University, produced by ETOPiA.