The Ann Arbor District Library (AADL) and Ann Arbor Civic Theatre (A2CT) will present an original one-act play, “Last Summer,” written by Jim Ottaviani. The play will be performed at the Downtown Library on December 7 and 11.
This 20-minute drama, directed by Cassie Mann, explores a historic conversation between nuclear pioneers Enrico Fermi and Werner Heisenberg that took place in Ann Arbor in 1939. The meeting, which occurred in the home of University of Michigan physics professor Samuel Goudsmit, involved Fermi, who was researching for the Allies, and Heisenberg, who was preparing to return to Germany. Their conversation about nuclear weapons became a critical moment in the development of atomic science.
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“Last Summer” is part of AADL’s Ann Arbor 200 project, a year-long initiative to commemorate the city’s bicentennial by sharing lesser-known stories from its history. Ottaviani’s play was specifically commissioned to highlight Ann Arbor’s role as a hub for theoretical physics during the pre-World War II era.
“The Library’s Ann Arbor 200 project is all about telling lesser-known stories from Ann Arbor’s history in creative new ways,” says AADL Director Eli Neilburger. “From the beginning of our bicentennial work, one of the projects I hoped to see happen was a one-act play about this conversation I had read about in Michigan Today years ago. The Summer Symposia made Ann Arbor the summertime center of the theoretical physics universe between the World Wars, and I’m so delighted to see this new play by Jim Ottaviani brought to life by the Ann Arbor Civic Theatre, to show our community the history of the town in a new light.”
The cast of “Last Summer” includes A2CT actors Chris Grimm as Fermi, Greg Kovas as Heisenberg, Trevor Maher as Goudsmit, and Andrew Schairbaum as Max Dresden.
“Imagining what two geniuses might have said to each other about such big problems may seem presumptuous to you…it does to me,” said playwright Jim Ottaviani. “But their topics were ones that everybody, not just geniuses, deal with — what is my responsibility here? “What can I actually do? So that brought things back home. After all, conversations where important things get discussed don’t just occur in a lecture hall or classroom. Sometimes they happen in a living room, late at night, with only a few witnesses.”
Performances are free, with no registration required. The play will be performed on Saturday, December 7, at 2 p.m. and Wednesday, December 11, at 6:30 p.m. at the Downtown Library, with Q&A sessions following each show. For more details, visit aadl.org.
