|
Scene 1 Home Page Essays Memoirs Fiction Plays Poetry References
|
|
ACT
1 ***.
The lights dim. Tchaikovsky’s "Serenade for Strings" is playing
while a countdown comes over the loudspeakers 5 4 3 2 1 0. The five scientists (Oppenheimer,
Bohr, Fermi, Fuchs, Feynman) & General Groves stand with their backs to the
audience facing a screen. When the count reaches three they all, except Feynman,
raise dark glass in front of their eyes. As the countdown reaches zero, a
blinding flash lights up the screen and the bomb explosion sequence is
projected. After three seconds Fermi half turns to the audience raises his hand
and releases pieces of paper. The
roar of the bomb follows after five seconds. The interlocutor walks to center
stage. The five scientists and General
Groves exit *** Interlocutor:
***After a short silence*** The evening of the 17th of July 1945, the day after
the first-ever explosion of an atomic bomb known as the “Trinity Test” in a
remote desert area of New Mexico, known as Jornada del Muerto The Journey of
the Dead. In
the dining room of the Oppenheimer’s house on Bathtub Row in Los Alamos,
Robert Oppenheimer,
who led the scientific development of the bomb and his wife Kitty
await the arrival of their guests: -
Niels Bohr, Nobel Prize winner for his analysis of the workings of the
atom, Enrico
Fermi, who had recently headed the team which brought the world’s first
nuclear reactor into action in Chicago, Klaus
Fuchs, a clever young theoretical physicist one of the team of scientists from
England, and General Groves, military head of the atom bomb project. They
are gathering to celebrate the successful explosion of the bomb in the early
hours of the previous day. The success brought great satisfaction and relief
after months of intense, stressful work with many set-backs on the way. The
scientists, elated by what they had achieved also realized what a terrible power
they had unleashed and put in the hands of mankind for better or worse. ***O.
and K. enter and sit at the dining table that is set for dinner. They are each
carrying a glass of whiskey, and O. has a pipe in his hand. There is a pork pie
hat on the rack behind the table. Several children’s toys are scattered in the
room. They sit at the table.*** K.
Well Robert, now you’ve had a good sleep for the first time in a month,
perhaps we can talk again. Tell me all about what happened yesterday? Many of us
saw the great flash in the sky even from up here it was like the sun coming
up before it should. Did it all go as you expected? O.
I guess so! The bomb certainly went off all right. K.
But was it what you’d expected? O.
I guess so! K.
Come on, Robert, don’t just say "I guess so", tell me what happened.
Was it a big enough bang. Was it a fizzle.
Was it what you’d hoped? O.
Oh God, it was no fizzle Kitty. It was the most awesome and frightening thing
I’ve ever seen. You know what came into my head when it happened …
unbelievable … I thought of lines from the
Bhagavad Gita
"If the radiance of a thousand suns and
the other one
"I am become death, K.
Typical of you Robert, you respond with poetry even for something as awesome as
this, poetry. It’s one of the things I love about you. But you’ve still not
answered my question. O.
We’re not real sure yet but it looks as if we had an explosion equivalent to
about 20,000 tons of TNT. And even that means it was probably only about 20%
efficient. K.
20,000 tons, wow! What did it weigh? Could a plane carry one? Should that
finish Japan in one stroke or will it be like another thousand-bomber raid using
one bomber? O.
The bomb weighed a few tons and, yes, a bomber can carry one. You know, Kitty,
I’m not supposed to be telling you all this. For Gods sake keep quiet when the
General’s here, won’t you? K.
The news gets around in any case. You know Groves actually told a Security
Officer to keep the test secret, especially from the wives, and he replied
"Might as well try to keep the Mississippi River secret". ***Both
laugh***. What was it like, were you frightened? O.
Oh yes, I was scared. I was scared at what I saw and I was scared that I might
have built a two billion dollar flop. But I was carrying the four-leafed clover
you’d given me from our garden, so I knew I’d be OK. ***smiles*** K.
You should get the Nobel Prize for this, then you’ll be up there with all
those glitzy foreign guys sporting their "Laureates" whenever they
open their mouth…. How powerful can you make it? If you made it 100% efficient
that’d be … Gee! 100,000 tons of TNT, is that right? O.
No and No. Maybe we could push it to say 60%. I’m not sure. We can certainly
make it better. But 100,000 …
God, Kitty, 20,000 is enough … plenty. You know something else that was eerie?
While we were listening to the countdown, all tense as springs, we could hear
Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings being picked up by the speakers from some
local radio station. Such gentle music before such a shattering explosion.
I’ll never be able to listen to that music again without a shiver going down
my spine. ***Pause*** K.
Well what now? Can we go back to Berkeley?
Right after dinner I’ll start packing O.
No. There’s a lot more to be done here. The war isn’t over yet. We may have
to make quite a few more of these things, perhaps a dozen or so. K.
How long’ll that take? O.
Quite a few months, for sure, and besides, to be honest, I want to be in the
loop for that and for all the politics that’s sure to surround all of this. I
can’t do that if I’m playing second fiddle at Berkeley. I‘ve got to be
here. Here is going to be the center of things for nuclear weapons for
some time to come. I’m the one who made it that way; I ought to have my say in
what comes next. All those other places that were involved in this project,
which, since you complain so much about Los Alamos, I can assure you are even
worse … Hanford, Oak Ridge and so on … they’re just satellites feeding us
the fuel and other bits. We’re the key we’re the brains and the assembly
factory. We build the things. K.
Well I suppose you think it’s better to reign in hell than serve in heaven.
***Checks clock*** They’re
going to be late. I really can't understand why we‘re having this dinner
anyway, Robert. O.
Kitty, we did something tremendous yesterday; we have to celebrate. K.
Well, I don’t like giving parties for your buddies where all the talk is
boring physics. You know I’m glad everything went well for you yesterday but
God I’m sick of this desert, sick of the damn bomb, sick of not having enough
water to take a shower every day. I just want to get back to civilization. Your
bomb went off, so why can’t we plan on getting the hell out of here? O.
You know we’re not finished here yet. K.
Who exactly is coming? O.
General Groves. He’s got some questions he needs answering before going to
Washington. And I’ve invited Enrico Fermi, Klaus Fuchs, and Niels Bohr to
round out the party. Fermi and Fuchs can help answer technical questions about
the test, and since Niels was one of the first to understand what makes the bomb
work, I thought his usual philosophical dreaming would be interesting. K.
There you go. It’s not a party; it’s a physics seminar with food. And we
have to put up with that that Nazi, Groves? He’s so proud of building the
Pentagon. But it should have
been Fort Leavenworth he’s made Los Alamos a prison with us as his
prisoners. And why did you
invite Klaus? He’s our baby sitter, what does he know? This is going to be
some party. And Fermi with his fractured English. My friends tell me you all
call him the Pope because he’s infallible. I’d call him that because I
can’t understand him, half the time. You’ve spoiled my evening already. O,
Oh come on Kitty - that was just about as "Nazi" a remark about Groves
as I’ve heard! And no-one can
talk about Enrico and Niels as though they were idiots. Klaus is coming because
he did important calculations on the bomb. And we really are celebrating; can
you imagine what we’d be doing if our work had failed yesterday. K.
Yes, I understand that well enough, but you must sometimes have thought that
perhaps your work should not have been successful. Perhaps it should not have
been done at all? O.
Kitty, grow up! We have to live in the real world and in that world there are
duties to be done. This was a duty. K.
Duty! Duty! Well while you were doing your duty, I have not been having a BALL
in this God-forsaken place? Yes it’s just like Berkeley, I must say, all the
top restaurants, the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, all the cultural goings
on. This place is a dump, wooden barracks and clothes lines. The medics spend
all of their time delivering babies because people have nothing else to do. All
I got out of this place is saddle sores. Oh! Yes, and I‘ve become an expert on
yuccas and tumbleweed. O.
OK, calm down, someone’s coming down the path. ***Kitty
goes out of the room and comes back quickly.*** K.
It's only Elsie, late as usual to help with dinner. We should fire her and get
one of the local Indian girls. All I get from Elsie is a lot of back-talk. She
thinks she owns this place. She and Groves would make a great pair.
Are you happy doing the cooking tonight? I hope you’re not going to
serve that "atomic bomb" chili you make.
Bob Wilson and his wife went home breathing fire after eating it last
time. O.
No, we’re having a new steak sauce I dreamed up. It’s hot but not like the
chili. Promise. I’ll make some fresh martinis before they get here. You’d
better make sure Toni and Peter are tucked up in bed while I go work on dinner. K.
You should go see to the children really. They‘ve hardly seen you for
the past month. I’m surprised you can even remember their names. And by the
way, we’re out of clean diapers again and that woman who runs the washing
service is mad at me because I called her a bitch … which she is. O.
Kitty, we don’t have time for nonsense now. They’ll be here soon. I’ll go
mix the martinis.*** knock at door*** K. I’ll get it.*** Oppenheimer and Kitty exit.*** Scene 2 |