Dr Semmelweis

Before covid changed the world, actor and all-round genius Mark Rylance hatched an idea for a play. He wanted to reveal the amazing story of the Hungarian scientist Dr Ignaz Semmelweis, whose name and achievements had disappeared into the mists of time. Semmelweis was the first to discover bacteria, and the first to realise that hand hygiene would save lives. If his findings had been taken seriously at the time, millions of lives would have been saved. But they weren’t.

Thanks to the massive egos of his fellow medics in 1800s Europe, the good doctor’s simple and effective way to stop so many women dying in and after childbirth were ignored until Lister and Pasteur made the same discovery decades later. The journey he embarked on destroyed his sanity and saw him sent to an asylum. The resulting play is on at the Harold Pinter Theatre for summer 2023 and runs for a strictly limited season. Dr Semmelweis theatre tickets are going to be hot property, so grab yours as soon as they’re available. This play is quite extraordinary.