The encounters on stage (and not in the wings) between theater and physics resulted in one of the greatest works of 20th century dramaturgy. Watching a good production of “The Life of Galileo Galilei” by Bertold Brecht is equivalent to a semester on Science & Society. If you have the opportunity, don't hesitate to skip at least one class to go to the theater and enjoy the 17th century Italian physicist, talking about the construction of knowledge and its dilemmas. [1], both yesterday and today. The play, written in 1938, premiered in 1943 in Switzerland with the world at war around it.
The theater also allowed an impossible dialogue between Isaac Newton and Albert Einstein, now thanks to the Swiss writer and playwright Friedrich Dürrenmatt. This disciple of Brecht wrote the play “The Physicists” in 1962, now at the height of another war, the cold one: a reflection on science and its effects. There are 3 physicists admitted to a sanatorium, one who believes he is King Solomon, and two others who pretend to be other people, who in turn pretend to be crazy, thinking they are Newton and Einstein. All in the midst of a burlesque police plot. The text of the play has an addendum with certain explicit clues such as that “the content of physics is of interest to physicists, its effect to men”. At the end of the play, the character Joseph Eisler, who called himself Ernest Ernesti, who called himself Einstein, addresses the audience as the latter and confesses: “I love men and I love my violin, but it was on my recommendation that you built the atomic bomb.”[2]
And the bomb was built. Robert Oppenheimer was the scientific director of the Manhattan project, which left as a legacy the first 3 atomic bombs: the first was just a test, but the other two went down in history in an infamous way. Oppenheimer left the project before the explosions of these last two [3]. Years later he criticized the development of nuclear fusion bombs, which heralded annihilation multiplied by a thousand. And here comes a third premiere, already in 1964: “The Oppenheimer Affair” by German playwright Heinrich Mauritius Kipphardt. The “case” refers to the prosecution that the scientist suffered at the hands and in the eyes of the commission on anti-American activities during the previous decade. In the meantime, nuclear weapons dominated the scene in the Cold War and science had definitively lost its innocence. [4]. What could it (science) do then?
And we finally arrive at the most recent premiere that took place last week. It is “Pugwash”, by Vern Thiessen, which celebrates the 60th anniversary of the first conference held in the small fishing village of the same name on the coast of Nova Scotia, Canada, in July 1957. Two characters are central to the story: Cyrus Eaton, an industrialist born in the village and who financed the event, and Joseph Rotblat, a physicist, one of its organizers. Rotblat had also participated in the Manhattan project, but resigned well before the first bomb was completed due to irreconcilable moral issues. This first conference for nuclear disarmament and world peace brought together 22 scientists from different countries on both sides of the then Iron Curtain. Oppenheimer was invited but did not attend. Bertrand Russell, one of the meeting's mentors, was unable to attend for health reasons, but he is one of the authors of the 1955 “Russell-Einstein manifesto”, the origin of this movement. The letter endorsing the final version of the manifesto is the last public document signed by the famous physicist [5].
The conference is a pioneering example of what we know today as non-governmental diplomacy and spawned the organization “Pugwash Conferences on Science and Global Affairs”. Sir Joseph Rotblat was its president for many years and received the 1995 Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the organization. In his speech upon receiving the award, the physicist quotes a phrase from the 1955 manifesto: “above all remember your humanity". It is the mission of engagement that Ernest Boyer told us about.
More about Ernest Boyer: The fourth and fifth missions of the university
[1] A “menu” of the play with Denise Fraga in the role of Galileo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEwfs7WBK0c
[2] There is a television version on YouTube, see the physicists' final speeches in the last 10 minutes (from 1 h to 56 min, subtitled in Spanish): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tjd64Nb-FU
[3] Oppenheimer on the bomb: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0eaMvAHI_4
[4] Reference to the title of Armin Hermann's book (not translated): “Wie die Wissenshaft ihre Unshuld verlor” (“How science lost its innocence”).
[5] A translation of the manifesto, along with its history can be found at http://www.sbfisica.org.br/fne/Vol6/Num1/pugwash.pdf