Dr Semmelweis
- 2 hours 30 minutes (with one interval)
- Harold Pinter Theatre
- 4.5/5 based on 17 reviews
- Booking details
- Booking until: Friday, 6 October 2023
- Running time: 2 hours 30 minutes (with one interval)
- Age restrictions
- Important information - Please read
Dr Semmelweis description
Playwright, actor and national treasure Mark Rylance returns to the West End in summer 2023 with a new play, Dr Semmelweis. It opens at the Harold Pinter Theatre on 11th July and runs until 7th October. This is the critically acclaimed 2022 Bristol Old Vic production, directed by Tom Morris with Rylance reprising the lead role.
Dr Semmelweis made one of the most important discoveries in modern medicine, the first to find bacteria, but his discovery remained unknown for four decades – at which point Louis Pasteur and Dr Lister made the same discovery. Why did nobody listen to the eccentric Hungarian doctor?
Rylance was intrigued by the story and co-created the play with Stephen Brown. They’ve used a chorus of ballet dancers to represent the people who died because Semmelweis was reviled. The result is an unusually powerful piece of theatre.
What's the story of Dr Semmelweis?
Mark Rylance returns to the West End as one of medicine's greatest but least-known pioneers. You’ll meet the maverick Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis, whose research could have saved millions of lives but was ignored.
Dr Semmelweis was desperate to stop the invisible killers he knew was at work, but his colleagues in the medical world refused to listen, too wrapped up in their own egos to change. The doctor was rejected by the establishment and ultimately lost his sanity, haunted by the women whose lives he couldn’t save. Will he finally convince the greatest doctors of 1800s Europe to accept his theory? And if so, at what cost?
Who is starring in Dr Semmelweis?
Mark Rylance takes the starring role.
Who is on the Dr Semmelweis creative team?
Sonia Friedman Productions and the National Theatre present the smash-hit Bristol Old Vic Production of Dr Semmelweis, by Stephen Brown with Mark Rylance, based on the actor’s original idea. It’s beautifully directed by Tom Morris with Set and Costume Design by Ti Green, Lighting Design by Richard Howell, Choreography by Antonia Franceschi and Music by Adrian Sutton.
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