QED: A Play (Paperback)

by Peter Parnell (Author) "Twenty-five or thirty years ago, on my days off from the Korean War, which was at that time being waged at Twentieth Century Fox in..." (more)
Key Phrases: Los Alamos, Miss Field, Dick Feynman (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
"The play itself is a kind of proof, dramatically illustrating how a man who happens to be a genius elegantly and movingly works through the human problem of how to face the end of his life." -Nancy Franklin, The New Yorker

Product Description
"QED is a seductive mix of science, human affections, moral courage and comic eccentricity... not to be missed." - John Simon, NEW YORK MAGAZINE "...The play itself is a kind of proof, dramatically illustrating how a man who happens to be a genius elegantly and movingly works through the human problem of how to face the end of his life." - Nancy Franklin, THE NEW YORKER With a moving and powerful introduction from Alan Alda. Who knew that quantum electrodynamics could make for a dramatic read? In the hands of the late, great physicist Richard Feynman, it does. Feynman's theory of QED is just one of the many topics the playwright Peter Parnell explores in this nearly-one-man show, a recent Broadway triumph for star Alan Alda as Feynman. Set in Feynman's office on the weekend of his realization that he has terminal cancer, this play is an intellectual tour-de-force that captures the unique, hilarious, and puckish genius that Feynman was. From his work on the Manhattan Proje ct to the death of his beloved first wife, from his mission to reconstruct the Challenger space shuttle tragedy to his Nobel-prize winning physics ideas, the mere resume of Feynman's life is fascinating. But Parnell give us more, letting Feynman fill in the details of his life. When he reads a letter he wrote to his wife after her death, or flirts with a student, or chillingly recalls walking around Manhattan calculating how much damage an atomic bomb could do, we grow to love the man behind the scientist. And we read in fascinatin as he puzzles out the problem of his own death. Combining the current interest in science and math in the entertainment world with one of the most entertaining scientists in U.S. history, QED is a tour-de-force.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 72 pages
• Publisher: Applause Books; illustrated edition edition (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557835926
• ISBN-13: 978-1557835925
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.3 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #183,354 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Frenetic and Fascinating, January 13, 2004

By	"eminentbrain" (SF Bay Area, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This play comes up short as a deep history (see Gleick's "Genius" for that), but does a great job of laying out in broad strokes the diverse and idiosyncratic nature of one of the recent histories' greatest minds. I wish I had been able to see Alan Alda perform this piece, because based on how it read I can imagine that he did Feynman great justice.