Full cast announced for the West End run of DR SEMMELWEIS

The critically acclaimed Dr Semmelweis was originally developed by the National Theatre Studio and produced by Bristol Old Vic, opening on 20 January 2022 in association with Sonia Friedman Productions, the National Theatre and Shakespeare Road.

The play, in which Rylance reprises the title role, is written by Stephen Brown with Mark Rylance and is directed by Tom Morris. In a unique theatrical event, he and the cast are joined on stage by 10 ballet dancers and the Salome string Quartet.

The company are: Roseanna Anderson (Marja Seidel/ Baroness Maria-Teresa), Zoe Arshamian (Dance Ensemble), Joshua Ben-Tovim (Hospital Porter/ Death), Ewan Black (Franz Arneth), Chrissy Brooke (Lisa Elstein), Megumi Eda (Aiko Eda), Suzy Halstead (Violet-May Blackledge), Felix Hayes (Ferdinand von Hebra), Pauline McLynn (Anna Müller), Jude Owusu (Jakob Kolletschka), Oxana Panchenko (Dance Ensemble), Millie Thomas (Agnes Barta), Max Westwell (Hospital Porter/ Death), Amanda Wilkin (Maria Semmelweis), Alan Williams (Johann Klein), Daniel York Loh (Karl von Rokitansky), Patricia Zhou (Dance Ensemble), and Helen Belbin, Jason Hogan, Andrew McDonald, with the Salomé Quartet - Haim Choi as Suk Hee Apfelbaum (Music Director/ Violin 1), Coco Inman as Sarah Schmidt (Violin 2), Kasia Zimińska as Eszter Horowitz (Viola) and Shizuku Tatsuno as Oshizu Yukimura (Cello).

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. Public booking is now open.

Directed by Tom Morris; Set and Costume Design by Ti Green; Lighting Design by Richard Howell
Choreography by Antonia Franceschi; Music by Adrian Sutton

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

Mark Rylance returns to the West End as one of medicine’s greatest pioneers, maverick Hungarian doctor Ignaz Semmelweis – the man whose research could save many millions of mothers’ lives.

But what good is a discovery that is ignored?

In Vienna, a city of artistic and scientific revolution, thousands of women are still dying in childbirth each and every year. Dr Semmelweis dedicates himself to overcoming the invisible killer but to do so he must convince his colleagues that they themselves are causing the deaths of their patients.

Damned by an establishment that questions his methods, his motives and even his sanity, Semmelweis is haunted by the women he has failed to save. Can he finally convince the greatest doctors of 19^th century Europe to accept his argument – and what will it cost him to make an almost impossible case?

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.

In association with the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

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/Belasco Theatre), Jerusalem (Royal Court Theatre/Apollo Theatre/Music Box Theatre – Olivier Award for Best Actor and Tony Award for Best Actor in a Play, and Apollo Theatre 2022), La Bête (Comedy Theatre/Music Box 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 Institute Benjamenta, Bridge of Spies – Academy Award and BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor, The BFG, Ready Player One, Dunkirk, Waiting for the Barbarians, The Trial of the Chicago 7, The Phantom of the Open, Don’t Look Up, Bones and All, and The Outfit.

Roseanna Anderson reprises her roles of Marja Seidel/ Baroness Maria-Teresa. Her theatre work includes I, Joan (Globe), Venus (Wilton’s Music Hall), BAAL (British Council tour to Indonesia 2019), Sexbox (Edinburgh Showcase) and Da-Da-Darling (Ugly Duck). Her work as choreographer and director includes Cosmic Yoghurt (Messums Wiltshire), Lady Blackshirt (Bristol Old Vic, Sydney Opera House), Beacons of Resistance (Jasmina Cibic), Empty Stage (Carlos Acosta), The Ballet of The Nations (British Art Studies), Blast (BBC Four), Park Wanderings (Southwark Park Galleries), Elver (BBC Arts), Shining Intimacy (Tom Marshman), and The Travelling Companion (Opera by Charles Stanford). Since 2011, she has co-run IMPERMANENCE, which was nominated for Best Independent Company at the 2022 National Dance Awards. The company makes work for cabaret, stage and film, touring nationally and internationally to critical acclaim.

Zoe Arshamian is in the Dance Ensemble. Her theatre credits include An American in Paris (Dominion Theatre), The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty's Theatre), Cinderella, The Nutcracker, Carlos Acosta's Don Quixote (Birmingham Royal Ballet), Swan Lake (Copeland Park and Bussey Building), On The Town (Hyogo Performing Arts Centre and Tokyo Bunka Kaikan), Sleeping Beauty, Swan Lake, The Nutcracker (The Royal Ballet Company), Swan Lake (Northern Ballet), Scherezarde, Romeo and Juliet, The Nutcracker, Carmen (The National Ballet of Ireland). For television, her work includes House of Dragons; and for film, Bowland Beth.

Joshua Ben-Tovim reprises his role of Hospital Porter/ Death. His theatre work includes VENUS (Wilton’s Music Hall), The Major Arcana (Mayfest), Late Last Minute (The Mount Without), Numerous Turns (Duckie), BAAL (Jakarta Theatre Platform), SEXBOX (British Council Edinburgh Showcase), Da Da Darling (Ugly Duck), and Trying It On (Lea Anderson, Bristol Museum). His film work includes Lady Blackshirt, Nada, State of Illusion, BLAST, and The Ballet of the Nations. For the last decade he has run IMPERMANENCE, an award-winning dance theatre company based in Bristol with Roseanna Anderson, creating critically acclaimed work for stage and screen.

Ewan Black plays Franz Arneth. His theatre work includes The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (Royal Lyceum and National Theatre of Scotland, Edinburgh/US Tour/Off-Broadway, New York), James IV: Queen of the Fight (National Theatre of Scotland), A Christmas Carol, Sleeping Beauty, (Bristol Old Vic Theatre), The Grinning Man Musical (Bristol Old Vic, Trafalgar Studios), Signal Fires: Nat-Die 2020 (Fuel Theatre, Eden Court), Romeo and Juliet (Bath Theatre Royal), Treats (Tobacco Factory, Brewery), and The Comedy of Errors (Tour, Edinburgh Fringe-Assembly).His television work includes Lord of the Rings: Rings of Power, The Sound of Musicals and The Crown; and for film, Matilda the Musical and The Grinning Man AR Motion Capture.

Chrissy Brooke plays Lisa Elstein. Her theatre work includes Wicked (Apollo Victoria), The Phantom of the Opera (Her Majesty’s Theatre), An American in Paris (Dominion Theatre), Strictly Ballroom (Piccadilly Theatre), Carousel (Regents Park Open Air Theatre), Wait For Me (Sam Cassidy and Ainsley Ricketts)and Dirty Dancing (Dominion Theatre). His television work includes Apartment 7A; and for film, Cats, Disenchanted and Snow White.

Megumi Eda reprises her role of Aiko Eda. Her stage work includes Agon (Royal Festival Hall/Armitage Gone! Dance), Blackbird, Living Toys, The Parades Gone By, Ground Level Overlay (Sadler’s Wells/Rambert Dance Company), Odyssey, Swan Lake, Othello, St. Matthew’s Passion, Nutcracker (Hamburg Staatsoper), Theme and Variation, Violin Concerto, Symphony in C, A Million Kisses To My Skin, Access All Areas, In the Upper Room, Les Noces, and Artifact (Dutch National Ballet), and Connoisseurs of Chaos, Time is the Echo of an Axe Within a Wood, Ligeti Essays, In This Dream That Dogs Me, Summer of Love, The Watteau Duets, Drastic Classicism, Made in Naples, Itutu, Three Theories, Gaga-Gaku, Mechanics of the Dance Machine, Three Theories, and You Took a Part of Me (Armitage Gone! Dance Company). She is a Bessie Award winner 2004 for Best Solo Performance (Joyce Theater, NYC).

Suzy Halstead reprises her role of Violet-May Blackledge. Her theatre work includes MSC Magnifica (world tour) and MSC Bellissima (Mediterranean), The Phantom of the Opera (Stockholm and world tour). Her ballet work includes Scottish Ballet (Artist), National Ballet of Ireland (Artist), VAC Live (Whitechapel Gallery).

Felix Hayes reprises his role of Ferdinand von Hebra. His theatre includes A Christmas Carol, Jane Eyre, and A Monster Calls (The Old Vic in association with Bristol Old Vic), Vice Versa, The Tempest, The Comedy of Errors, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, City Madam, Cardenio (RSC), Peter Pan, Jane Eyre (National Theatre/Bristol Old Vic), One Hundred, One Dalmatians, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, A Christmas Carol (Tobacco Factory), Romeo and Juliet (Rose Theatre Kingston), The Unsinkable Clerk and The Pickled King (Network of Stuff); and for television, Three Girls, A Gert Lush Christmas, Drunk Histories and Friday Night Dinner.

Pauline McLynn plays Anna Müller. Her theatre includes Doctor Faustus, The Knight Of The Burning Pestle, Cymbeline (Shakespeare’s Globe), Mother Courage and Her Children (Red Ladder), Daisy Pulls It Off (Park Theatre), East Is East (UK tour), Happy Days (Sheffield Crucible), The Trojan Women, The Comedy of Errors, Yerma, Antigone (Abbey Theater), The Double Dealer, Tartuffe, Absurd Person Singular, The School For Scandal (Gate Theatre Dublin), and The Taming Of The Shrew, Our Country’s Good, The Tempest, Top Girls and The Caucasian Chalk Circle (Rough Magic). Her television work includes Rosie Molloy Gives Up Everything, Holding, Doctor Who, Inside No. 9, Silent Witness, The Young Offenders, Gameface, Trollied, Dave Allen At Peace, Drop Dead Weird, Eastenders, Father Figure, Threesome, Shameless, The Bleak Old Shop Of Stuff, Pramface, Jam and Jerusalem, Bremner, Bird And Fortune, High Hopes, French and Saunders, TV To Go, Family, Aristocrats, The Inheritance, and Father Ted; and for film, Last Night In Soho, Man & Witch, Johnny English Strikes Again, Transformers: The Last Knight, Angela’s Ashes, Secret Scripture, Noble, Gypo, The Calling, Iris, Heidi, Far and Away, The Most Fertile Man In Ireland, An Everlasting Piece, When Brendan Met Trudy, Quills, Nora and Guilttrip.

Jude Owusu (Jakob Kolletschka). His theatre work includes To Kill a Mockingbird (Gielgud Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Bartholomew Fair (Shakespeare’s Globe), Tamburlaine, I Cinna, Julius Caesar (RSC), The Cherry Orchard (Bristol Old Vic), A Tale of Two Cities (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Jeramee, Hartleby and Ooglemoore (Unicorn Theatre), The Comedy of Errors (National Theatre), Othello (Malachite Theatre), Africker (Hoxton Hall), Wayne (Etcetera Theatre), and The Robbers (New Diorama Theatre). For television, his work includes The Dumping Ground, Father Brown and The Hollow Crown: Wars of the Roses – Richard III.

Oxana Panchenko is in the Dance Ensemble. Her theatre work includes Falling Man (Wilton’s Music Hall), Short & Sweet (Barbican) and Tits &Teeth (Shoreditch Town Hall), Venus (Bristol Old Week and Wilton’s Music Hall). Her dance work includes English National Ballet (Royal Festival Hall and Coliseum), Bayerishes Staatsballett (Munich Opera House), K Ballet (Touring Japan), Balletboyz (Sadler’s Wells Theatre and touring nationally and internationally), Mathew Bourne’s Swan Lake (Sadler’s Wells Theatre and Tour of Japan and USA), Michael Clark Company (Barbican, Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall, Whitney Biennial in New York, Pyramid Stage at Glastonburry and touring North America, South America, Europe and Australia), Yourke Dance Company (Royal Opera House).

In 2002, she won the Time Out Live Award for Outstanding Performance and the following year won Outstanding Female Classical Artist Award at the Critics’ Circle National Dance Awards.

Millie Thomas plays Agnes Barta. Her theatre work includes Emergence (UK tour).

Max Westwell plays Hospital Porter/ Death. His stage work includes An American in Paris (Dominion Theatre) and Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (UK tour). For television, his work includes Agony and Ecstasy, Angela, Bridgerton, History of a Pleasure Seeker and The Windsors; and for film, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms. As assistant choreographer, his television includes Greatest Days, Bridgerton and Queen Charlotte.

Amanda Wilkin plays Maria Semmelweis. Her theatre includes Shedding A Skin (Soho Theatre – also playwright, Verity Bargate Award winner), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, Gabriel, The Tempest (Shakespeare's Globe), Emilia (Vaudeville Theatre), The Little Sob (Sam Wanamaker Playhouse), White Teeth (Kiln Theatre), La Ronde (The Bunker Theatre), The 306: Day (National Theatre of Scotland), The Grinning Man (Trafalgar Studios), Pilgrims (Theatre Clwyd/HighTide Festival/The Yard Theatre), Hopelessly Devoted (Paines Plough and Birmingham REP), Arabian Nights (The Watermill Theatre), Blood Wedding, The Bacchae (Royal and Derngate),and A Midsummer Night's Dream and Marat/Sade (RSC). Her television work includes Delia, Am I Being Unreasonable?, High End Homeless, The Split, The Girlfriend Experience, Finding Alice, Unforgotten, Berlin Station,and Gavin and Stacey; and for film, Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!.

Alan Williams reprises his role of Johann Klein. His theatre work includes Jerusalem (Apollo Theatre), Faith, Hope and Charity, As You Like It, Light Shining In Buckinghamshire, War Horse (West End), Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Here We Go ( National Theatre), Gundog, Mint, The President Has Come To See You, Talk Show, Stoning Mary, Lucky Dog, Terrorism, Under The Whaleback, Local, Crave (Royal Court Theatre), Three Sisters, The Jew of Malta (Almeida Theatre), The Crucible (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Krapp’s Last Tape, Mean Streaks, Bed Of Roses, Bridget’s House, The Weekend After Next, The Cockroach Trilogy (Hull Truck), Mary Barnes (Birmingham Rep), A Thousand Stars Explode In The Sky (Lyric Hammersmith), The Birthday Party (Lyric Theatre), Comfort Me With Apples (Hampstead Theatre), The Scarlet Letter, The Sea (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Inland Sea (Oxford Stage Company), Kiss The Sky (Bush Theatre), The Rib Cage, In The Chicago Abyss (Manchester Royal Exchange), and A Tale Of Two Cities, and Having A Ball (Liverpool Playhouse). His television work includes Beyond Paradise, Without Sin, Inside Man, The Long Call, Grantchester, Cold Feet, Father Brown, The Capture, Chernobyl, The Crown, Endeavour, The Starlings, Utopia, Doc Martin, Luther, Shameless, Crimson Petal, Vera, Mutual Friends, Spooks, The Innocence Project, Rome, The Virgin Queen, Life Begins, Charles II, Wire In The Blood, Sirens, Badger, Love In A Cold Climate, The Mayor Of Casterbridge, Always And Everyone, Getting Hurt, The Scold’s Bridle, Touching Evil and Wycliffe; and for film, Sometimes Always Never, Peterloo, Ich War Zuhause Aber/I Was At Home But, Trespass Against Us, War Horse, London Boulevard, Grow Your Own, Vera Drake, Bright Young Things, All Or Nothing, Heartlands, Elephant Juice, Among Giants, and The Cockroach That Ate Cincinatti.

Daniel York Loh reprises his role of Karl von Rokitansky. His theatre work includes The Merchant of Venice, The Country Wife, Moby Dick, Snow in Midsummer, Dido Queen of Carthage (Royal Shakespeare Company), Porcelain, Pah-La (Royal Court Theatre), Welcome Home Captain Fox! (Donmar Warehouse), The World of Extreme Happiness (National Theatre), The Shadow Factory (Nuffield Southampton), LOVE (A Zeldin Company/L’Odeon Paris European Tour), No Particular Order (Theatre503), Dmitry (Marylebone Theatre), Caceroleo (Vault Festival), Our American Cousin, We Know Where You Live, P’yongyang (Finborough Theatre), Une Tempete (Gate Theatre), The Magic Fundoshi (Lyric, Hammersmith), Hamlet (Riverside Studios), Sun is Shining (King’s Head/BAC/59E59 NYC), The Changeling (Southwark Playhouse), Turandot (Hampstead Theatre), The Tempest (National Theatre/UK tour), Measure for Measure (Manchester Library), Nativity (Birmingham Rep), King Lear (Shanghai Dramatic Arts Centre/UK tour), The Good Woman of Szechwan (Leicester Haymarket), In the Bag (Edinburgh Traverse), and Tartuffe, and Romeo and Juliet (Basingstoke Haymarket). His television work includes Whitechapel, Moving On, Waking the Dead, Casualty, Peggy Su!, Chambers, The Bill, Supper at Emmaus, A Fish Named Tao, Hollyoaks, and Strangers; and for film, Scarborough, The Receptionist, Rogue Trader, The Beach, Faraway, Act of Grace, Doom, and Casting Fu Manchu.

Patricia Zhou is in the Dance Ensemble. Her theatre work includes Romeo and Juliet (Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hollywood Bowl), Linear Sympathy (L.A. Dance Project, Vocal Warehouse). Ballet includes Jewels and Herrumbre (Schiller Theatre), Multiplicity. Forms of Silence and Emptiness (Komische Oper), Glass/Handel (Printworks), Petit Mort, Romeo and Juliet, The Nutcracker, Ballet Imperial, Swan Lake, Ring um den Ring, Daphnis and Chloe, The Nights, Secus, Maskenball (Deutsche Oper), White Darkness, Sleeping Beauty, La Bayadere, Altro Canto, Tchaikovsky (Schiller Theatre), Bach Studies (LUMA Arles), Kinaesonata (Theatre des Champs Elysees), Erde (Komische Oper), Giselle (Schiller Theatre), Homeward (Hauser & Wirth), Onegin, Namouna, La Peri (Schiller Theatre), Don Juan (Komische Oper), The Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty, Manon, La Fille Mal Gardee, Romeo and Juliet, and The Prince of the Pagodas (Royal Opera House). For television, her work includes Dancing with The Stars (Spotlight performance).

Helen Belbin’s theatre credits include To Kill a Mockingbird (Gielgud Theatre), Heights (Oxford Shakespeare Company), Market Boy (Union Theatre), About Last Night (Arcola Theatre), A Haunting (Belgrade Theatre Coventry), The History Club (Old Red Lion), Kings (Vault Festival), The Flouers O' Edinburgh, Northern Star (Finborough Theatre) and Verdict (UK tour). Her television work includes The Outlaws, Holby City Silent Witness, Call the Midwife, and Wolfblood; and for film Mad to Be Normal, Waterboys, The Carrier, Always in the Present and Je Suis Daddy.

Jason Hogan’s theatre work includes The Merchant of Venice, Wuthering Heights and Consensual (National Youth Theatre).

Andrew McDonald’s theatre work includes Dead Lies (UK tour), Ghost Stories (Ambassadors Theatre and UK tour), The Night of the Iguana (Noël Coward Theatre), The Height of the Storm, Heroes, Art (Wyndham’s Theatre), Farinelli and the King, Ink, Bedroom Farce (Duke of York’s Theatre), Harry Potter and the Cursed Child (Palace Theatre), The Vote (Donmar Warehouse), This House, The Alchemist, The Royal Hunt of the Sun, Tartuffe (National Theatre), The Entertainer (The Old Vic), The Alchemist, Julius Caesar, and Columbus and the Discovery of Japan (RSC). His television work includes Murder Not Proven.

The Salomé Quartet - Haim Choi as Suk Hee Apfelbaum (Music Director/ Violin 1), Coco Inman as Sarah Schmidt (Violin 2), Kasia Zimińska as Eszter Horowitz (Viola) and Shizuku Tatsuno as Oshizu Yukimura (Cello), return to the company of Dr Semmelweis. The Salomé Quartet are recognised for their heartfelt interpretations and electric sense of communication, quickly establishing themselves as one of UK's most exciting young string quartets. Formed in 2016 at the Royal College of Music in London, the group's international lineup comprises four prizewinning musicians - Haim Choi, Coco Inman (violins), Kasia Zimińska(viola) and Shizuku Tatsuno (cello). The group have performed around the UK and abroad, including Milton Court, Barbican Centre, Wigmore Hall, Sacconi Chamber Music Festival and Tel Aviv Opera House, among others. The quartet was invited to Keshet Eilon International Mastercourse in Israel and Trondheim Academy in Norway, Musethica Germany and Spain and selected as finalists in the St Martin-in-the-Fields Chamber Music Competition. Their recent engagements include appearances at the Wigmore Hall, Conway Hall, Cadogan Hall, Wye Valley Music, Bayle Music, a recording project of John Woolrich's new works and a residency at the Stauffer Centre for Strings, Cremona. They have been selected as Britten Pears Young Artist and have won the Tunnell Trust Award.

Tom Morris has been Associate Director at the National Theatre since 2004. He was Artistic Director of Bristol Old Vic from 2009 to 2022, where he re-established the theatre’s programme after closure, conceived and directed two 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 Night’s 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.