Copenhagen

Why did Heisenberg come?

They were friends before the world went to war. Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg once worked closely to unlock the secrets of the atom. Then war placed them on opposite sides.

It's 1941. Heisenberg, now a leading figure in Germany’s atomic research programme, visits Nazi-occupied Copenhagen to meet his former mentor, Bohr, and wife, Margrethe. The atmosphere sours quickly. What passed between them has never been agreed upon, and the details of that encounter remain one of the greatest mysteries of the Second World War.

Why did Heisenberg come?

Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen returns to that meeting, a moment that cannot be settled, neither by history nor by the people who lived it. As the three revisit that fateful evening, memories clash, motives are questioned, and certainty proves elusive. The search for what happened becomes inseparable from the question of whether the truth can ever be known.

A friendship forged through scientific discovery is tested by the devastating consequences neither can fully control. What was intended, what was understood, and what was left unsaid become inseparable from the war unfolding outside.
Directed and designed by Robert Chevara, returning to The Bridge Theatre for the third time, Michael Frayn's multi-award-winning Copenhagen is a gripping human drama about friendship, duty, and the choices that can change the world.

A European story for Europe’s capital. Created by artists from across the continent and staged in Brussels, this original production by The Bridge Theatre brings together voices from nations divided by the events of the play. In a city built on dialogue and cooperation, Copenhagen reflects on Europe’s past, the connections rebuilt in its aftermath, and the possibilities of its future.

Cast

Dan Buckley

Djavan van de Fliert

Training: Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts

Theatre: Dionysos in The Frogs (Southwark Playhouse), Fisherman’s Friends The Musical (UK Tour and Toronto), The House on Cold Hill (The Mill Theatre), Fiver: The Live Concert, (Southwark Playhouse), Oor Wullie(Dundee Rep), Normality (The Other Palace), Fiver (Southwark Playhouse), Eugenius! (The Other Palace & London Palladium), Dead Simple (The Mill Theatre), Jest End (Waterloo East Theatre), Sweeney Todd (Derby and Mercury Theatre), Christie in Love (Kings Head Theatre), Stiles and Drewe's 3 Little Pigs (Sydney Opera House, London Palace Theatre), LARDO (ORL Theatre), Ushers: The Front of House Musical (London Charing Cross Theatre), Original Standby Elder Cunningham in The Book of Mormon (London Prince of Wales Theatre), Loserville (London Garrick Theatre & West Yorkshire Playhouse), Lord of the Flies (UK Tour) Fresher: The Musical (Edinburgh Festival) and Spring Awakening: The Musical (UK Tour).

Film: The Twelve Days of Findom.

Workshops: Trainspotting: The Musical, Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cinderella, Nerds, The Green Fairy, Young Bill in Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again (for Universal Pictures), The Heart of a Dog, Operation Mincemeat,West End Men, Out There, All Better Now, Fanatical :The Musical, Piccoch1.0.

Recordings include: Alice Down the Rabbit Hole, Fisherman’s Friends The Musical, Fiver: The Live Concert, Oor Wullie: The Musical, Eugenius!, Cool Rider, Ushers: The Front of House Musical and Alice Down the Rabbit Hole.

Commercials: Switch Guarantee (UK) and IFOLOR's photo book campaign across Europe.

Voice Over: Niall and Hugo in Xenoblade Chronicles II for Nintendo, Fleance in Blood will have Blood.

Djavan van de Fliert

Born and raised in Brussels,

Djavan van de Fliert is a Dutch actor and musical theatre performer who graduated from Arts Educational Schools London in 2022 and immediately landed his professional debut in Frozen The Musical at Theatre Royal Drury Lane. His portrayal of Kristoff earned him a WhatsOnStage Award nomination for Best Professional Debut.

Following his success in Frozen, Djavan took on the iconic role of Enjolras in Les Misérables at the Sondheim Theatre from 2023 to 2024 and Freddy Eynsford-Hill in My Fair Lady at Leicester Curve last Christmas.

Earlier this year he also recorded a new musical named Ayla in the leading role of Mohr with music and lyrics by Gianluca Cucchiara.

Most recently, he delighted audiences as Marcel/Yves in Piaf at the Watermill Theatre.

Laura Marie Benson

Djavan van de Fliert

Laura Marie Benson

Laura trained at the Urdang Academy, graduating with a Diploma in Professional Musical Theatre and Dance.

Her theatre credits include playing Kowalski, Candy Hammernose, and Resident Director on the UK and International Tour of Madagascar the Musical; Sister Mary Martin of Tours and Cover Sister Mary Patrick in Sister Act at the English Theatre, Frankfurt; and Ensemble with covers for the Wicked Stepmother and Ugly Sister in Cinderella at the Wolverhampton Grand. She appeared as Swing, Dance Captain, and Cover Heather and Alesha on the UK and New Zealand tours of American Idiot, and performed as Alice and Dance Captain in Thoroughly Modern Millie in Canada. Other notable roles include Angie in Summer Holiday (UK Tour), Ensemble and Cover Cinderella in Cinderella at The Orchard Theatre, Alice and Cover Miss Flannery in the UK tour of Thoroughly Modern Millie, Frenchy and Cover Sandy in Grease for Belinda King, and Ensemble with Cover Snow White in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs at Venue Cymru. She has also performed as a Backing Vocalist and Dancer in The Stylophones at the Leicester Square Theatre, and as a Backing Dancer in Shoshana Bean – Back in London at the Hippodrome, London.

Her television work includes appearances in Danielle Does Life (BBC Three), Jane McDonald & Friends (Channel 5), and the Strictly Come Dancing Launch Show (BBC).

Creatives

Michael Frayn, Playwright

Robert Chevara, Director and Designer

Michael Frayn is one of Britain’s most distinguished playwrights and novelists. Born in London in 1933, he began his career as a journalist, writing for The Guardian and The Observer, before turning to fiction and theatre.

His novels include A Very Private Life, Headlong—which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize—and Spies, which won the Whitbread Novel Award. As a playwright, he is celebrated for both his comic and dramatic works, including Noises Off, widely regarded as one of the greatest stage comedies of the twentieth century, and acclaimed plays such as Democracy, Afterlife and Copenhagen.

First produced in London in 1998, Copenhagen has become one of Frayn’s most internationally recognised works, receiving the Tony Award for Best Play and the Olivier Award for Best New Play.

Across a career spanning more than six decades, Frayn has established himself as a writer of exceptional range and intelligence, combining wit, theatrical craft and a profound interest in the complexities of human behaviour.

Robert Chevara, Director and Designer

Robert Chevara is a visionary, radical, international theatre, multi award winning, film and opera director, disrupter, and artist. His production of ‘Carmen’ (Mid Wales Opera) won the Prudential award, best contemporary opera production for Tom Adès’s ‘Powder Her Face’ (Stockholm) and his production of Tennessee Williams’s ‘Vieux Carré’ won Best Revival of a Play Award in the UK from Front Row Dress.

Robert has directed at The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, The Old Vic Theatre, The San Francisco Opera, The Soho Theatre, Royal Northern College of Music, The Opéra Comique, Paris, The Dutch National Opera Academy, Opera New Zealand, The Arcola Theatre, London and the Kirov Theatre, St. Petersburg.

Seminal productions have included work by Puccini, Stravinsky, Tennessee Williams, Verdi, Bizet, Shakespeare, Prokofiev, Philip Ridley, McNally, Massenet and Tom Adès.

In the last couple of years he has directed Argento”s Postcards from Morocco (DNOA Holland), Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra (The Glory and The Divine, London) and Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune (McNally - The Bridge Theatre, Belgium), Rossini’s La Scala Di Seta (Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester) and Philip Ridley’s Vincent River (Soho Theatre transferred to the Trafalgar Theatre, London) and the European premiere of Benjamin Perry Wenzelberg’s Nighttown (DNOA - Amare, Den Haag).

Other recent work includes Tennessee Williams’s ‘The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore” at the Charing Cross Theatre with Linda Marlowe and Sara Kestelman. The World Premier of three early Williams pieces ‘The Chorus Girl Plays’ (Chicago and Tennessee Williams Festival, Provincetown), the world premiere of Lionel Bart’s musical ‘Quasimodo’ (Kings Head Theatre); Caryl Churchill’s ‘Top Girls’ (Hau Theatre, Berlin); JM Barrie’s ‘Mary Rose’; ‘Hamlet’ and Strindberg’s ‘Easter’ (all TheatreSpace, London); Copi’s ‘Eva Peron’ and ‘The Four Twins’, the UK premiere of Argentinian playwright Copi’s two one-act plays. (Battersea Arts Centre).

Robert’s first book ‘West End Girl’ was published by Oberon Books, now Bloomsbury. He has written several opera libretti and his first poetry collection ‘Perfect. Scar’ was published last year by Angelica Books.

Nico de Rooij, Lighting Designer

Nico de Rooij is a Dutch lighting designer with over 25 years of experience creating lighting for theatre, concerts, festivals, opera, dance, and immersive installations. His work is known for its restrained use of colour, strong architectural compositions, and a cinematic approach to light, using subtle transitions and contrast to shape atmosphere and narrative.

He has collaborated with artists including Nils Frahm, Ólafur Arnalds, Efterklang, John Grant, and Meg Stuart, and has designed productions for leading theatres and festivals across Europe. Nico is the founder of Studio SIDF, where he develops lighting concepts that bridge the worlds of performing arts, live music, and large-scale immersive experiences.

Ioana Mandrescu, Sound Designer

Nico de Rooij, Lighting Designer

Ioana Mandrescu is a Brussels-based, sound artist, composer, sound designer, and pianist.

With a background in classical piano and postgraduate studies in sound art, she creates work at the intersection of contemporary music, sound art, theatre, and immersive sonic practices. She has created sound for productions including These Roots Never Blossomed by Sana Ghobbeh, Franky and Johnny at The Bridge Theatre Brussels (directed by Robert Chevara), and Luk Perceval's cinematic adaptation of The Sorrows of Belgium – Yellow for NTGent. Her sound installations and performances have been presented in Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Italy, and Romania. In 2021–22, she taught sound design for film in Mosul, Iraq, as part of Reviving the Spirit of Mosul, an educational programme developed by NTGent in partnership with UNESCO. She often collaborates with Belgian and international artists. As a classical performer, Ioana has appeared at leading European festivals and venues, and is a co-founder of the Quivir Ensemble and Opia Ensemble.

Her artistic practice explores listening, space, and the expressive possibilities of sound through collaborative and interdisciplinary projects.

Sam Ceci, Costume Designer

Nico de Rooij, Lighting Designer

Sam Ceci, Costume Designer

Sam Ceci is a costume designer originally from Mons who has been based in Brussels for the past five years. Self-taught, they honed their craft through hands-on experience and a career driven by creativity and curiosity. They took their first steps in costume design for Luc Petit’s theater productions at the nonprofit organization Les Nocturnales before founding their own studio.

Today, they create bespoke costumes for artists across a wide range of disciplines, including theater, dance, music, circus arts, burlesque, pole dancing, drag, and more. Their work is defined by an artisanal approach, with each costume thoughtfully designed to reflect the performer’s artistic vision, personality, and practical needs. Combining craftsmanship with a strong sense of storytelling, Sam creates pieces that are as expressive as the artists who wear them.

Tuesday 14 October

Thursday 16 October

Q&A with Ewan Jones, director and choreographer of tick, tick ... BOOM!

Thursday 16 October

Kelly Agathos, Entrepreneur in the Arts,

Art, Ambition, and Forks in the Road

Tuesday 21 October

Thursday 16 October

Tuesday 21 October

Gabriel Goldberg, First employee of Google Belgium & Founder of Semetis and Hakacia,

The Social Price of Hard Work

Weds 22 October

Tuesday 28 October

Tuesday 21 October

Philip Herd, Editor in Chief, The Brussels Times

The Stories We Chase, the Ones We Miss

Tuesday 28 October

Q&A with the members of the cast of tick, tick...BOOM!

Weds 29 October

Tuesday 28 October

Pieter de Witte, Managing Director, TADA - ToekomstAtelierDelAvenir

Ambition as a Privilege

The Bridge Theatre proudly presents...

Copenhagen

Why did Heisenberg come?

Copenhagen

Tuesdays - Saturdays 19:30 - 22:00 | Sundays at 14:30-17:30

Tickets: €

Venue: La Maison Qui Chante - Rue du Viaduc 122, Ixelles

Cast

Dan Buckley

Djavan van de Fliert

Djavan van de Fliert

Djavan van de Fliert

Djavan van de Fliert

Djavan van de Fliert

Laura Marie Benson

Djavan van de Fliert

Laura Marie Benson

Creatives

Michael Frayn, Playwright

Robert Chevara, Director and Designer

Robert Chevara, Director and Designer

Robert Chevara, Director and Designer

Robert Chevara, Director and Designer

Robert Chevara, Director and Designer

Nico de Rooij, Lighting Designer

Nico de Rooij, Lighting Designer

Nico de Rooij, Lighting Designer

Ioana Mandrescu, Sound Designer

Nico de Rooij, Lighting Designer

Nico de Rooij, Lighting Designer

Sam Ceci, Costume Designer

Nico de Rooij, Lighting Designer

Sam Ceci, Costume Designer

More Than Just Theatre: Pre-Show Talks

Tuesday 14 October

Thursday 16 October

Thursday 16 October

Thursday 16 October

Thursday 16 October

Thursday 16 October

Tuesday 21 October

Thursday 16 October

Tuesday 21 October

Weds 22 October

Tuesday 28 October

Tuesday 21 October

Tuesday 28 October

Tuesday 28 October

Tuesday 28 October

Weds 29 October

Tuesday 28 October

Tuesday 28 October

With support of

More from The Bridge Theatre

This website uses cookies.