Heisenberg is on one level, just six simple scenes exploring how a 75 year old British man, and a 38 year old Chinese woman fall in love with each other. But on another level, the play is pushing the boundaries of structure and dynamics in storytelling, while simultaneously suggesting the limitlessness of love’s boundless expressions. Convention and confusion walk hand-in-hand throughout the play as in a love affair or a mathematical riddle. 

 

 

Of course, the title Heisenberg makes the play sound as if it might be a lesson in quantum physics, buthardcore science is kept to a minimum in the piece. Still the plays does explore, and in most unique fashion, the often mercurial and quantum-like confusions of human relationships as people, all of us, try, in one way or another, to find and express love. 
 
Werner Heisenberg said, when discussing his uncertainty principle of physics, “What we observe is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our method of questioning.” I think it can be said of Simon Stephen’s play Heisenberg that what we observe as an audience is not intended to be reality itself, but rather a jostling journey of misapprehension that is both liberating and a bit scary, as the limits of how stories should be told, and how love should be expressed are explored.
 
But, maybe, on the other hand, you could simply say, Heisenberg is not rocket science — or particle physics. It's just a sweet story about two people who think they don't deserve love. 

 

 

 

Writer: Simon Stephens
Simon Stephens is one of the UK’s most prolific and celebrated playwrights. Stephens is perhaps best known for his stage adaptation of the novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, for which he won the 2015 Tony Award for Best Play.
 
Stephens has staged close to three dozen plays over two decades, including the critically acclaimed Pornography (2007), Punk Rock (2009) and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time (2012), which premiered at the National Theatre and later toured on the West End and Broadway. It went onto win seven Olivier awards, then the equal record for a single play.
 
Many recent works, including The Funfair (2015) and Fatherland (2017) have premiered in Manchester theatres. Stephens also currently works as Artistic Associate at the Lyric Theatre and Associate Playwright at the Royal Court.

 

Director/Actor: Joseph Graves
Joseph Graves is a well-known and prolific theatre director, actor and writer. He is also the co-founder and Artistic Director of Seven Ages Musical Theatre Company where he has directed 12 highly successful musicals which have given thousands of performances and been seen by millions of audience members in over 80 Chinese cities. For 19 years Joseph was an associate professor in THe School of Foreign Languages at Peking University where for 16 of those years he was also Artistic Director of Peking University’s Institute of World Theatre and Film.
 
Along with the above mentioned musicals, Joseph has directed more than 60 other productions in China over the last twenty years. These productions often mix Eastern and Western theatre artistic, technicians and languages, and have frequently been introductions of Western plays to Chinese audiences. In China, Joseph has directed numerous Shakespeare plays as well as plays by other European writers such as Marlowe, Congreve, Sheridan, John Osborne, Joe Orton, Harold Pinter, Moliere, Gozzi, Goldoni, Pirandello, Brecht, Lessing, Ibsen, and Chekov to name only a few.
 
Outside of China, Joseph’s work in dramas, musicals and operas has been seen in London’s West End, and throughout the UK, and across the European continent as well as in New Zealand and the UAE. In America Joseph’s plays have been seen from New York to Los Angeles and in dozens of cities in between. 
 
Joseph’s extensive acting credits have found him performing dozens of leading roles in classical and contemporary theatre, including musicals, comedies, and dramas. He has worked on all of Shakespeare’s plays and has performed the title roles in HAMLET, KING LEAR, RICHARD III, HENRY V, MACBETH, CORIALANUS, PERICLES, TIMON OF ATHENS, TITUS ANDRONICUS, along with dozens of other major Shakespearean roles.

 

 

Producer/Actress: Yihuanr Wei (Summer)
Summer is native Chinese Actress, Director, Writer and Producer. In America she received an MFA in classical acting from perhaps Americas finest Shakespearean company, The Shakespeare Theatre of Washington D.C. Summer also received a PhD in Acting and Directing from The Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. Such multi-national theatre education has allowed her to act professionally on stages in America as well as in China where she frequently performs in Chinese as well as in English.
 
Summer has performed in classical, contemporary and experimental theatre, and in both comedies and dramas. She is also currently touring a mime show, THE KID, performing along side, Philippe Bizot, the most acclaimed mime artist in the world. Summer’s thorough, long-term training as a dancer when combined with her singing, and her acting prowess have allowed her to perform several substantial roles in Chinese language incarnations of Western musicals including, most recently, Cäcilia Weber, in MOZART L’Opera Rock and Violet in LES CHORISTES. Summer was also seen as Christmas Eve in the Tony Award winning, AVENUE Q, and the female lead, Rosemary, in the Pulitzer Prize winning, HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS WITHOUT REALLY TRYING.