Island Theatre will present a staged play reading of “Copenhagen,” by Michael Frayn, as part of the theatre’s 20th anniversary season.

This special season will showcase a retrospective of favorite productions from past years, and “Copenhagen” will be presented at 7:30 p.m. both Saturday, Oct. 17, and Sunday, Oct. 18 at the Bainbridge Public Library.

Performances are free, with donations welcome.

This Tony Award-winning play dramatizes the disastrous secret 1941 meeting between German physicist Werner Heisenberg and his former colleague and friend, Danish physicist Nils Bohr, on the Nazi’s efforts to produce the atomic bomb. Their work together on quantum mechanics and the uncertainty principle had revolutionized atomic physics. But now the world had changed and the two men were on opposite sides in a world war.

Why Heisenberg went to Copenhagen and what he wanted to say to Bohr are questions that have vexed historians ever since.

In Frayn’s ambitious and fiercely intelligent play, Heisenberg and Bohr meet once again to discuss the intricacies of physics and to ponder the metaphysical — the very essence of human motivation — as well as the creation of the most destructive weapon of war known to humanity.

Directed by Kate Carruthers, the Island Theatre production of “Copenhagen” features Tell Schreiber, Jennifer Jett and Ken Enright. It was first performed by Island Theatre as part of the 2003 Bainbridge Island Humanities Inquiry on “Discovery” with the same cast and director.

Copenhagen is recommended for high school age and up.

Founded on Bainbridge Island in 1994, Island Theatre’s mission is to provide quality theatre, geared toward mature audiences, onstage and in less conventional venues, through plays that challenge performers artistically while both entertaining and intellectually engaging audiences. Its regular schedule includes bi-monthly staged play readings at the Bainbridge Public Library; potluck dinners in privately hosted homes at which guests are welcome to join in a selected play reading; and the annual Island Theatre Ten-Minute Play Festival.

Island Theatre’s 20th anniversary season is sponsored by Althea Paulson and Dan Mallove, with royalty support from Linda Lemon and operational support from One Call for All.