"QED" Or "What Mr. Fainman proved" by Peter Parnell with Giorgios Kotanidis| A performance – celebration of physics with the help of "Union of Greek Physicists"

 

The “confrontation” between George Kotanidis and the Nobel Laureate Physicist Richard Feynman, in Peter Parnell’s play “QED” or “What Mr. Feynman proved”– one of the greatest theatrical successes of the decade – has come to life again on the stage of the Michael Cacoyannis Theatre and has been overwhelmingly welcomed by the people! The performance was staged with the assistance of the “Union of Greek Physicists” and has evolved into celebration of Physics with open conversations with some of the most prominent Greek physicists before and after the performance.  Theatre fans, Physics aficionados and our future generation, the pupils and students, all rushed to see this unique fusion of Art and Science.

 

The impressive response to the performance has prompted the addition of performance into the month of February 2016. The new dates are: 1 & 2, 8, 9 & 16 February 2016.

 

 

Richard Feynman is at his office preparing his lecture “Everything we know”. He explains a few mysteries of the Universe and the atom to us and he talks of all he has experienced and all he dreams of, uncovering fascinating events in his life. Feynman is not your everyday person. He is a Nobel Prize Winning Physicist who was honoured for Quantum Electrodynamics (QED), a charismatic lecturer, a genius scientist but also a clown who enraptured his audience every time he lectures. He was one of the physicists who, at the age of 25, worked to create the first atomic bomb. He was a passionate drummer, an amateur actor, a creative artist, a dreamy traveler, an incurable womanizer, an incredibly hyperactive human being. He often collided with the establishment in the name of truth and would counteract demureness with humour and irony. His student, Miriam Field, besieged him and attempted to extract from him secrets surrounding the science of physics and the universe. At some point he simply divulges to her that “My entire life I have danced and flirted with Physics, but she does not let you lift her veil”.

 

In the course of the same evening, he comes face to face with questions concerning life and death as he must make a very grave decision:  will he succumb to the cancer which has struck him once again or go through yet another surgery with only a 50% chance of success?  A war rages between logic and emotion, God and Nature, between truth and lie. And so, when emotion overcomes him, his encounter with Field, his student, comes to remind him of the joys of life and he decides to fight for his. Richard Feynman, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1965 for his work on Quantum Electrodynamics (the abbreviation of which is the title of the play “QED”), was a multi-talented, enchanting character who touched upon many areas of scientific creation, of art and of society.  He was a man who stood up boldly against life, science, art and women.  He was bold against power and opposite death.

 

Translation: Giannis Milios & George Kotanidis

Directed by: Iosiph Vardakis

Set design – Costumes: Magiou Trikerioti

Lighting: Andreas Bellis

Production: Saltibagoi Group

With the assistance of the “Union of Greek Physicists”