Mark Rylance returns to the West End in DR SEMMELWEIS

A critically acclaimed production by Bristol Old Vic, Mark Rylance will play a Hungarian doctor called Ignaz Semmelweis. Set in Vienna during a time when thousands of women were dying in childbirth, Ignaz Semmelweis is determined to save lives with his maverick approach to medicine. But to make a change, he must convince his colleagues to admit culpability and approve change.Can he finally convince his peers to accept his argument? And what will it cost him to make an almost impossible case?

Directed by Tom Morris, the show features live music by Adrian Sutton and original choreography by Antonia Franceschi of Balanchine's New York City Ballet.

Based on an original idea by Mark Rylance, he said, "Here is a person who makes one of the most important discoveries in modern medicine - what we now call ‘Bacteria’ - and yet he is pretty much unknown because for forty years, until Louis Pasteur and Dr Lister make the same discovery, no one will listen to him. Why?

I was intrigued. The inspiration to act our story with a chorus of ballet dancers and a quartet representing the many thousands of mothers who perished unnecessarily, makes this a very powerful piece of theatre for me. I am thrilled to be reviving it in London at the Harold Pinter Theatre."

Playing a strictly limited run, tickets for Dr Semmelweis go on general sale on 31 March.