Core Issues – Lise Meitner, Otto Hahn and Max von Laue
„“In one and a half hours, a multi-faceted drama unfolded on stage with Lise Meitner and her contemporaries Otto Hahn and Max von Laue as protagonists… Lise Meitner is played magnificently by Anita Zieher, with an Austrian twang, pithy, funny – and sometimes bitter… The staging does not resolve the conflicts, but presents them in a multi-faceted way … The light art subtly underlines what is happening, sometimes periodic tables flutter across the wall, sometimes patterns of oil, water and ink that form according to the laws of nature. A large choir performs European cultural heritage, from soulful to shrill.“
You can find the whole article (in German) here: HZB blog campus
Lise Meitner (1878-1968), a double migrant, voluntarily and involuntarily, the first woman to receive a physics professorship in Germany. A woman in a field unusual for her time. A scientist who remains in close contact with her colleagues Otto Hahn and Max von Laue on scientific and political issues, even at a distance. Starting from the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938 the play takes us to moments of Lise Meitner‘s career and shows how everyday work and the conditions of research change in extreme political situations.
The play „CORE ISSUES“ by portraittheater Vienna under the direction of Sandra Schüddekopf brings Lise Meitner (Anita Zieher), Otto Hahn (Dietmar König – videos/Dennis Kozeluh voice) and Max von Laue (Christoph Gareisen) back into the lecture hall and transforms it into a stage. The story is brought to life with the help of the Berliner Capella choir and live light projections by Katrin Bethge. The project is an extraordinary collaboration between science and art, both in the performance and in the development of the play.
Premiere in English PORTRAITTHEATER WIEN
Thursday, 21.12.2023, 19:00
Freie Universität Berlin (FU): Henry-Ford-Bau, Garystr. 35, D-14195 Berlin
Host: Freie Universität Berlin
Director and author (with original quotes and letters): Sandra Schüddekopf
Lise Meitner: Anita Zieher
Max von Laue: Christoph Gareisen
Otto Hahn: Dietmar König (Video) Voice: Dennis Kozeluh
Light art: Katrin Bethge; assistance light art: Maj-Lene Tylkowski
Music: Chor Berliner Cappella, Sergi Gili Solé (Conductor), Katharina Landl (piano) and Uta von Willert (Vocal soloist)
Videos: Karl Börner
Costume: Lejla Ganic
Tour assistant: Rudi Hausmann
Photos: Reinhard Werner und Urban Ruths; Bernd Wannemacher/FU
Translation: Dennis Kozeluh
Synchronisation: Rupert Derschmidt, Sandra Schüddekopf
Voice coach: Bronwynn Mertz-Penzinger
Project manager: Heinz-Eberhard Mahnke
Powered by: Ernst-Reuter – Gesellschaft der Freunde, Förderer und Ehemaligen der FU Berlin e.V., Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin, Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft, Wilhelm und Else Heraeus-Stiftung, European Physical Society Nuclear Physics Division, Berlin Mathematics Research Center MATH+, SFB/Transregio 227 an der FU Berlin, SFB 1078 an der FU Berlin, SFB 1114 an der FU Berlin, SFB/CRC1449 an der FU Berlin, FB Physik FU Berlin, FB Mathematik und Informatik FU Berlin, Max-Born-Institut Berlin, Archiv der Max-Planck – Gesellschaft, Nationalfonds der Republik Österreich für Opfer des Nationalsozialismus