New Play HAFFKINE Will Have a Rehearsed Reading at JW3

New play HAFFKINE will have a rehearsed reading at JW3 on Monday 10 June 2024 at 7pm.

HAFFKINE is written by Paul Twivy (Simon Schama helped develop the script).

This is the untold story of Waldemar Haffkine (1860-1930), a Russian Jew, whose exceptional talent as a microbiologist brought him to the attention of Louis Pasteur, and then to the British Government, who sent him to Colonial India to defeat Cholera and the Bubonic Plague.

Hailed as a saviour in his lifetime, Haffkine was a complex and fascinating character, a man who would stop at nothing to save life. Yet, because of anti-Semitism, he was wrongly accused by the British Raj of killing 19 people through negligence in what was called “The Second Dreyfuss Affair.”

Although he eventually cleared his name, he died in obscurity where he has remained ever since. Until now….. HAFFKINE.

The cast includes Ben Caplan as Haffkine (Call The Midwife, Band of Brothers, The Lost Honour of Christopher Jeffries), with Ahmad Sakhi (Ackley Bridge), Mikhail Sen (House of Dragons), Tim Treloar, Morag Sims, Deni Francis - with a backdrop of images of the historical events.