Prolific American playwright Peter Parnell came up with an inspired choice with his play QED about the brilliant Jewish American physicist Richard Feynman (1918-1988). By way of background, Feynman was regarded as one of the most brilliant physicists of the 20th century. Amongst his achievements Feynman was a joint recipient, along with Julian Schwinger and Shin-Ichiro Tomonaga, of the Noble Prize for Physics in 1965 for his contribution to the development of quantum electrodynamics.

Feynman is, simply, a wonderful, irresistible subject for a play. A very rich character, there’s just so much to play with! He had a beautiful mind, was very charismatic, and a quintessential free spirit. He was known as a womaniser, prankster, juggler, proud amateur painter and actor, and a bongo player. He liked to pursue multiple seemingly incongruent paths, such as biology, art, Maya hieroglyphics, and lock picking! Colleague Freeman John Dyson described him as, ‘all genius and all buffoon’.

Parnell frames his portrait of Feynman around one Saturday afternoon and evening in 1986, with the physicist working away in his cluttered office located in the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California., With the aid of chalk and a blackboard, Feynman shoots the breeze about a vast array of topics whilst preparing a lecture, having ongoing phone debates with his specialist as to whether to agree to an operation after more cancer has been found, and dealing with the overtures of a persistent and attractive student, Miriam Field.

Currently audiences have a chance to see Richard Feynman come alive with the ever reliable Henri Szeps playing the legendary scientist in Andrew Doyle’s tight production of QED at Kirribilli’s Ensemble Theatre. It was an inspiring experience learning of this man who had an infinite curiosity for the world, and loved nothing more than a great challenge to test him,

There’s a defining moment in QED when Feynman tells his Doctor that, if if he goes ahead with the cancer operation, and whilst ‘under’, it he looks as if he’s ‘going’, he insists that he be woken up, so that he can experience his death. The great man, to a tee!