Reimagining Simon Stephens’ 2015 play a decade later, Katharine Farmer’s new direction of Heisenberg reinterprets the story of identity and loneliness as a queer female romance. In bustling St Pancras train station, Georgie, a young free spirit, impulsively plants a kiss on the neck of Alex, a reserved 70-year-old woman sitting on a bench. Challenging heteronormative expectations, Katharine Farmer’s interpretation strips away the familiar power dynamics of an age-gap relationship to unravel the complexities of human relationships. We sat down with director, Katharine Farmer, to discuss her upcoming production.
How does your reimagining of Heisenberg as a queer female relationship alter the dynamics and themes of the play compared to previous productions?
Reimagining Heisenberg with a queer female relationship at its centre allows us to explore the play’s themes of uncertainty and connection without the heteronormative expectations of a younger man and a younger woman. The age gap between Alex and Georgie takes on new dimensions when viewed through queer experience, particularly how society perceives and often dismisses relationships between women of different generations.
The original text’s exploration of chance encounters and unlikely connections resonates differently when we consider how queer people often find each other across boundaries that might otherwise separate them. It doesn’t fundamentally change the play’s brilliant meditation on uncertainty, but rather illuminate different facets of it, revealing how queer relationships often exist in spaces of beautiful ambiguity.
Back in 2019 I directed Heisenberg at Rubicon Theatre Company and Laguna Playhouse in California and absolutely fell in love with the script for its subtle power dynamics, romantic tension, and exploration of how well you can truly know another person. At the play’s core it’s about two lonely people navigating isolation and invisibility and connecting through shared experiences. I’m excited to see what this reimagined casting will bring to these core themes once we fully stage the production.
Your direction in 23.5 Hours was praised for building a sense of paranoia—how does your approach to Heisenberg create tension or emotional depth in this new interpretation?
23.5 Hours at Park Theatre dealt with societal pressures on a family trying to deal with the aftermath of a conviction. The play’s focal point was a wife who was trying to grapple with seismic uncertainty of whether or not her husband (whom she loved deeply) could also be capable of committing a terrible crime. The play was all about the grey area, and the corrosive power of doubt. Where the characters in 23.5 Hours had external forces closing in on them, the tension in Heisenberg emerges from within the relationship of our protagonists. The uncertainty principle that gives the play its name suggests that the more precisely you know one thing, the less precisely you can know another, which is a metaphor for the emotional landscape between Alex and Georgie.
I’m looking forward to creating moments where intimacy and distance coexist, where confession brings both clarity and confusion. A sense of vertigo where connection feels simultaneously thrilling and terrifying. The tension should come from watching two people who are absolutely certain about some aspects of themselves while being completely adrift in others. The emotional depth emerges not from fear but from vulnerability, and the courage it takes to be seen by another person.
What drew you to reinterpret Heisenberg a decade after its premiere, and how has your perspective on the play evolved since your first time directing it?
I’m a huge fan of Simon Stephens’ work. When I first worked on Heisenberg it was 2019 and the play felt slightly mystical to me. I was really proud of the production, but in the post-pandemic climate it felt like the play spoke to us on a different level. The sense of social isolation and uncertainty in the play feels much more palpable. Maybe it’s being 6 years older, maybe it’s the political climate, maybe we’re all a little more fragile after the pandemic, but I think Heisenberg in 2025 speaks to how we allow ourselves to be transformed by another person despite all our defenses and how we can take ownership and make choices (even when they’re really hard).
My perspective has evolved in as far as how profoundly the play speaks to marginalised experiences, how people who exist on society’s periphery develop different relationships to certainty and chance. What once seemed like a play about an eccentric connection now reads to me as a play about finding authenticity. The characters’ willingness to step into uncertainty feels especially resonant at a time when so many of us are questioning established structures and seeking new ways of relating to each other.
How does your experience as Artistic Associate at Arcola Theatre and founder of Blue Touch Paper Productions influence your directorial choices in Heisenberg?
Practically speaking, my experience at Arcola Theatre and seeing so many brilliant productions in Studio 2, and running my own theatre company, has taught me to trust simplicity. To create an environment where actors can fully inhabit complex emotions and just trust the script. We’re approaching this production with a minimalist design that invites audiences to project their own experiences onto the story. Arcola’s intimate space becomes almost a third character in the play, creating a sense that the audience is witnessing something private unfolding in real time.
With Heisenberg exploring uncertainty in relationships, how do you think the play speaks to the broader queer experience and the nuances of human connection?
Heisenberg brilliantly captures how all meaningful relationships require a leap into uncertainty, but I think this resonates particularly strongly with queer experience. Queer people often navigate relationships without the expectations that heteronormative couples inherit. By centering a queer female relationship in this production, we’re highlighting how uncertainty can be not just frightening but liberating. The play ultimately suggests that it’s only by embracing uncertainty that we can discover authentic connection, which speaks powerfully to the queer experience of creating meaning and building relationships outside established structures.
Tickets are available for Heisenberg 9th April – 10th May here.