Hollywood actor Nicole Kidman will take to the stage in the West End to play Newnhamite scientist Rosalind Franklin.
The Oscar-winner will star in Photograph 51, a play by Anna Ziegler which tells the story of Franklin whose use of X-ray diffraction images led to the discovery of DNA’s double helix structure in 1953.
The name ‘Photograph 51’ was given to an x-ray image taken by Franklin which revealed the double-helix shape of DNA.
It became the crucial starting point for research that identified how DNA was structured and set the stage for the rapid advances in molecular biology that continue to this day.
Photograph 51 takes audiences back to the London of the 1950s and the audience will watch the race against time as Franklin strives to make the scientific breakthrough.
The play also explores the events that led to Franklin, pictured, being excluded from recognition until after her death of ovarian cancer in 1958.
Francis Crick and James Watson, together with Maurice Wilkins, went on to win the 1962 Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discovery of the structure of DNA.
The most significant scientific discoveries of the 20th century were only possible thanks to Franklin’s experimental and brilliant work.
Ziegler’s play reveals the sexism and hostility that kept her out of the spotlight, and denied her the Nobel Prize which could not be bestowed posthumously.
The show has already been seen by audiences on the other side of the Atlantic, with numerous theatres staging it across the United States, but this production at the Noël Coward Theatre is its premiere in the United Kingdom.
Kidman debuted on the British stage in the 1998 David Hare play The Blue Room at London’s Donmar Warehouse in a critically-acclaimed performance.
She was nominated for an Olivier Award, London’s premiere theatre awards, for her role.
British director Michael Grandage will direct Photograph 51, reuniting with Kidman following their feature film collaboration Genius.
The play, which will be staged at the Noel Coward Theatre, sees the return of Grandage’s theatre company to London’s West End following a successful run of productions in 2013/2014 including Henry Vstarring British actor Jude Law.
Photograph 51 will run from September 14 until November 21.