Goteborg Theater In Sweden Offers Two Performances At Yale

The original cast of the Göteborg Theatre in Sweden will offer two performances (in English) of the one-act play Remembering Miss Meitner by Robert Marc Friedman. Lise Meitner (1878 - 1968) was a woman physicist who discovered, in collaboration with Otto Hahn, nuclear fission in 1938, but was overlooked by the Nobel Prize Committee. Otto Hahn received an undivided prize in 1945 for the discovery. Because of her Jewish origin, Meitner fled Germany in July 1938 and settled in Sweden where she worked in the laboratory of Manne Siegbahn, despite the difficulty caused by Siegbahn's prejudice against women in science.

In the play, the relationship between Meitner, Hahn, and Siegbahn is explored. The performances are part of four days of events at Yale University, January 15 - 18, 2009 that include a Tetelman lecture entitled "Human frailty etched in gold? The Nobel science prizes and the politics of excellence" on Thursday, January 15 at 5:00 pm by the author of the play, Robert Marc Friedman. The lecture will be held in the Lecture Hall of the Yale University Art Gallery. The Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics will also take place at Yale on January 16 - 18. Admission to the performances is free. For reservations, please contact: catherine.barabas@yale.edu.

Playwright and historian Robert Marc Friedman crisscrosses disciplinary and national boundaries. As an undergraduate, he studied meteorology and physics, all the while maintaining a goal of being a playwright. While endeavoring to keep on foot in the sciences and one in the arts/humanities, entered graduated studies at Johns Hopkins in the History of Science. Following his studies he spent a decade as a free-lance scholar in Norway and Sweden: researching and writing, both scholarly publications and screenplays for television docudrama. In 1989 he joined the faculty at the University of California at San Diego for six years. Following that, he moved back to Norway where he joined the faculty at the University of Oslo. It was at this time when he turned to playwriting, which he sees as an extension of his historical studies and provides an artistic engagement with the subjects of his scholarship.

Some other works:
Appropriating the Weather: Vilhelm Bjerknes and the Construction of a Modern Meteorology. Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press, 1989; paperback 1993.
The Politics of Excellence: Behind the Nobel Prize in Science.
New York: Freeman & Times Books, Henry Holt, 2001. (Chinese edition 2005).

Science against the Wind. Screenplay. One hour television film, Norwegian State
Broadcasting 1982. Broadcast Christmas 1982.
Becoming Albert Einstein. 80 minute stage play 2005. Professional production: Norway.

Inger Hayman studied at the school of the Royal Dramatic Theatre (Dramaten) in Stockholm and was performing there between 1955-1962. She came to Gothenburg City Theatre in 1962 and has been performing there ever since. In recent years she has done Mother in Goodnight Mother, Kate Keller in h All my sons, "A" in Three tall women, Maria Callas in Masterclass, Diana Vreeland in Full Galopp, and the role as Margrethe Bohr in Copenhagen. In the year 2000 she was awarded a Doctor h.c. at Chalmers University of Technology together with Ingemar Carlehed and Johan Karlberg.

Ingemar Carlehed is an actor, director and teacher at multiple theatre schools. He was active at the Gothenburg City Theatre from 1971-2004. Ingemar has also been a theatre manager at the Halland Theatre, and he is a frequent reader in Swedish radio Broadcasts. He has played Sigmund Freud in Hysterica, Duke Bolonsky in War and Peace, and Niels Bohr in Michael Frayn´s Copenhagen. He was awarded a Doctor h.c. at Chalmers University of Technology year 2000, together with Inger Hayman and Johan Karlberg

Johan Karlberg was educated at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Stockholm from 1974 -77 and has been working as an actor in Gothenburg City Theatre since 1983. Johan has performed in many plays throughout the years: Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire, John Proctor in The Crucible and Werner Heisenberg in Michael Frayn´s Copenhagen, amongst others. In the year of 2000 he was rewarded a Doctor h.c. at Chalmers University of Technology together with Inger Hayman and Ingemar Carlehed. He has appeared on TV, movies and radio plays and is a drama instructor.

Christel Korner was educated at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Stockholm from 1968-71 and has since then performed at the Gothenburg City Theatre in many different plays, including among others Sally in A Lie of the Mind, Elizabeth Proctor in The Crucible, and Melissa in Love Letters. She is also an active director and is the Artistic Director at the Foajé-scene in Gohenburg City Theatre.