Chris Sinclair explores some of the new plays and revivals of classic productions that are bringing physics and physicists to new audiences in the theatre – but wonders if anything will ever match Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen

Light effects Arcadia by the late Tom Stoppard was revived in 2026 at the Old Vic theatre in London. The cast included Isis Hainsworth (pictured) as Thomasina Coverly, who muses on ideas in mathematics, physics and nature. (Photograph by Manuel Harlan. Used with permission)"> Light effects Arcadia by the late Tom Stoppard was revived in 2026 at the Old Vic theatre in London. The cast included Isis Hainsworth (pictured) as Thomasina Coverly, who muses on ideas in mathematics, physics and nature. (Photograph by Manuel Harlan. Used with permission)

As audiences poured out of London’s Old Vic theatre on a crisp night in January, one theatregoer and their companion were overheard chatting about the second law of thermodynamics.…