DR SEMMELWEIS V3.qxp_Layout 2 28/01/2022 12:45 Page 1
Mark Rylance as Ignaz Semmelweis and Thalissa Teixeira as Maria Semmelweis
Masterful storytelling After almost two years in the making, the powerful world premiere production of Dr Semmelweis has finally made it to the stage at Bristol Old Vic, immortalising the lives of everyone involved in a journey of discovery. To find out more, we chat to the production’s narrator, Maria Semmelweis, played by the abundantly talented Thalissa Teixeira...
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f you haven’t heard by now, world-renowned actor, playwright and theatre director Sir Mark Rylance has teamed up with fellow writer Stephen Brown (Occupational Hazards) and artistic director of Bristol Old Vic, Tom Morris OBE (War Horse, Touching the Void), to tell the story of Dr Ignaz Semmelweis – a 19th century Hungarian physician who discovered the cause of puerperal ‘childbed’ fever and introduced antiseptic procedures into medical practice. His discovery at the time, however, although blindingly obvious to us in 2022, especially as we come through a global pandemic, was
24 THE BRISTOL MAGAZINE
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FEBRUARY 2022
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No 207
fiercely rejected by medical professionals who refused to believe that their unwashed hands had been the prime cause of thousands of deaths. Pushed aside and labelled as a radical, controversial practitioner, the traduced genius spent the rest of his life haunted by the faces of those who had needlessly suffered, and tortured by the fact that many more were still dying despite his findings. Driven to an eventual breakdown, he died a pariah at the tender age of 47 in an asylum. For decades, his life’s work lay buried in the annals of history. Although Semmelweis is now very much celebrated as ‘the father of hand hygiene’ – and the recent world-altering events have given
