Copenhagen cover art

Copenhagen

 Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Copenhagen

By: Michael Frayn
Narrated by: Benedict Cumberbatch, Full Cast, Greta Scacchi, Simon Russell Beale
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends 29 January 2026 at 11:59PM GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £7.99

Buy Now for £7.99

LIMITED TIME OFFER | £0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Premium Plus auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Terms apply.

About this listen

 Benedict Cumberbatch, Greta Scacchi and Simon Russell Beale star in Michael Frayn's award-winning play about the controversial 1941 meeting between physicists Bohr and Heisenberg. Copenhagen, Autumn 1941. The two presiding geniuses of quantum physics, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg meet for the first time since the breakout of war. Danish physicist Bohr and his wife, Margrethe, live in Nazi-occupied Denmark; their visitor, Heisenberg, is German, the two old friends, now on opposing sides have between them the ability to change the course of history. Frayn's Tony award-winning play imagines the three characters re-drafting the events of 1941 in an attempt to make sense of them. With Greta Scacchi as Margrethe Bohr, Simon Russell Beale as Niels Bohr and Benedict Cumberbatch as Werner Heisenberg. This new version of Copenhagen is adapted for radio and directed by Emma Harding. Drama & Plays Entertainment & Performing Arts European World Literature Denmark War

Listeners also enjoyed...

 Tom Stoppard: A BBC Radio Collection cover art
David Hare: A BBC Radio Drama Collection cover art
Spies cover art
Charles Paris: Cast in Order of Disappearance cover art
George Bernard Shaw cover art
Strangers and Brothers cover art
Tennessee Williams: A BBC Radio Drama Collection cover art
The Arthur Miller Collection cover art
The Oscar Wilde BBC Radio Drama Collection cover art
The Visible Man cover art
Living On Air cover art
E. M. Forster: A BBC Radio Collection cover art
The Real Thing cover art
Certainty cover art
American Prometheus cover art
The Man Who Stalked Einstein cover art
All stars
Most relevant
I can highly recommend this stunning rendition of Michael Frayn’s masterpiece. I’ve read the play a couple of times but the skilful adaptation and strong performances bring it to life. Deep, moving and complex, as great theatre should be.

Stunning rendition of a masterpiece

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Utterly superb. Physics, history, and mystery make a great story all conveyed through brilliant performances.

A great play

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Incredible writing, brilliantly performed by an excellent cast. Thought provoking and profound but also touching. Highly recommend.

Brilliant

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you listen to Copenhagen again? Why?

Yes. "Copenhagen" is both tightly focused and yet open in its conclusions - and because the story it tells was a key event in the history of the Second World War and beyond - mainly because nothing happened as a result.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Copenhagen?

It is not a play that depends on single moments.

What about Simon Russell Beale’s performance did you like?

He catches the seriousness and yet the oddity of the meeting between Bohr and Heisenberg.

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

What did they talk about?

Any additional comments?

This audio-play for three voices -- Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and Margrethe Heisenborg -- is tough but rewarding going. The two physicists circle round each other during Heisenberg’s 1941 visit to occupied Copenhagen, sometimes talking but, more often, talking about each other, with Margrethe as a troubled commentator. At stake is the Nazi’s project to build a nuclear bomb (with, had they known it, the Cold War that followed World War 2) and Frayn imagines the conversation, in the apparent absence of any record of what happened when they met. Ideas matter is the theme of this tense but always indirect play. From the title onwards, it is the indirection that marks out “Copenhagen” as unusual and remarkable drama.

What did they talk about?

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Would you listen to Copenhagen again? Why?

Wonderful performances that one can hear time and again without losing any interest.

What did you like best about this story?

Excellent combination of a scientific subject with touching repercussions for all the characters involved and on a larger scale for all of humanity.

Which character – as performed by Simon Russell Beale – was your favourite?

Heisenberg is simply astonishing. His dilemma and life story are incredible.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

One starts to listen at the audio book and time freezes.

Any additional comments?

Frayn has put on paper a masterpiece.

Wonderful piece of Theater

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
See more reviews