Bristol Old Vic's 'Dr Semmelweis' to open in London's West End

Bristol Old Vic's smash-hit production Dr Semmelweis, starring Mark Rylance, will open in the West End this summer at the Harold Pinter Theatre. It will open on 11 July, with previews from 29 June, and running until Saturday 7 October. The critically acclaimed Bristol Old Vic production was directed by Tom Morris and originally played at the theatre in 2022, marking Rylance's first time performing at Bristol Old Vic. 

With preview tickets from £10 and over 350 tickets a week at £25 or less, the production will play for a strictly limited 14 week run and there is priority booking for Bristol Old Vic Members.
Booking for NT Members, Bristol Old Vic Members and ATG Theatre Card Members opens on 17 March at midday.  
Public booking opens on 31 March at midday.  

“We are the doctors of the modern age. We are marching into battle.” 

Mark Rylance stars as maverick Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis – the man who discovered the cause of and cure for the childbed fever raging through 19th Century Europe. 

In Vienna, a city of unprecedented artistic innovation and scientific progress, of Schubert and the State Ballet, thousands of new mothers are still dying in childbirth each and every year. Semmelweis must make his fellow medics see that they themselves are to blame. 
Battling a stubborn establishment that questions his methods, his motives, and even his sanity, Semmelweis is haunted by the women that he desperately seeks to save. Can he finally convince his colleagues to change – or will this real-life pioneer find himself pushed out of polite society? 

Following a “smash hit” (Mail on Sunday), sold-out run at Bristol Old Vic, this “compelling new drama” (The Telegraph) directed by Tom Morris featuring live music by Adrian Sutton and original choreography by Antonia Franceschi of Balanchine’s New York City Ballet comes to the Harold Pinter Theatre in the West End for a strictly limited run this summer. 

Mark Rylance plays Dr Semmelweis. His theatre credits include Othello (Shakespeare’s Globe), Farinelli and the King (Shakespeare’s Globe/Duke of York’s Theatre/Belasco Theatre), Nice Fish (Harold Pinter Theatre - also co-writer with Louis Jenkins), Twelfth Night (Shakespeare’s Globe/Apollo Theatre/Belasco Theatre – Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, Richard III (Shakespeare’s Globe/Apollo Theatre), Jerusalem (Royal Court Theatre/Duke of York’s Theatre – Olivier Award for Best Actor and Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, and Apollo Theatre 2022), La Bête (Comedy Theatre), Boeing-Boeing (Apollo Theatre/Cort Theatre – Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play) and Much Ado About Nothing (Queen’s Theatre - Olivier Award for Best Actor). Rylance was the Artistic Director of the Shakespeare's Globe for 10 years (1996-2006). His television credits include Wolf Hall - BAFTA Award for Best Actor and an Emmy nomination. His film credits include Bridge of Spies – Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor, The Phantom of the Open, Dunkirk, The Trial of the Chicago 7, The BFG and Ready Player One.  

Tom Morris has been Associate Director at the National Theatre since 2004. He was Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic from 2009 – 2022, where he re-established the theatre’s programme after closure, conceived and directed 2 landmark festivals (Bristol Proms, festival of world class music and integrated digital technology in collaboration with Watershed Bristol and Universal Music, and Bristol Jam: Britain’s first festival of improvised performance). He also oversaw a major restoration and refurbishment of Britain’s oldest continuously working theatre – creating direct visibility from the street for the very first time. He was Artistic Director of BAC from 1995 to 2004 where he established the scratch developmental programme, restructured the organisation, set up and curated A Sharp Intake of Music, Playing in the Dark, the British Festival of Visual Theatre and the Sam Shepard Festival, and BAC Opera, where he produced Jerry Springer the Opera. His work as a director includes Juliet and her Romeo, The Meaning of Zong (with Giles Terera), Cyrano, King Lear, Touching the Void, The Grinning Man, Swallows & Amazons and A Midsummer Nights Dream (all for Bristol Old Vic and/or West End/International tour), Monteverdi’s  L’Orfeo (Vienna Statsoper), Breaking the Waves (Scottish Opera/ Opera Ventures, EIF, Opera Comique, Adelaide Festival), The Death of Klinghoffer (ENO & Metropolitan Opera), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour (NT), War Horse (NT, Lincoln Center and World tour (winning numerous awards including Tony for Best Director, with co-director Marianne Elliott)), Disembodied, Newsnight: The Opera, Home, Passions, Unsung, Othello Music, Trio and All That Fall (all for BAC). Writing includes A Christmas Carol and The Nutcracker (Bristol Old Vic), World Cup Final 1966, Jason & the Argonauts and Ben Hur (all with Carl Heap for BAC), The Wooden Frock, Nights at the Circus and A Matter of Life and Death (all with Emma Rice for Kneehigh) and the libretto for Orpheus in Hell for ENO. Morris was founding Chair of the JMK Trust, is the current Chair of Complicité, has honorary doctorates from UWE and Bristol University, and an OBE for services to Theatre.