Nicole Kidman Leads PHOTOGRAPH 51, Opening Tonight in the West End

The Michael Grandage Company presents the UK première of Anna Ziegler's PHOTOGRAPH 51. Nicole Kidman who leads the company as Rosalind Franklin is joined by Will Attenborough (James Watson), Edward Bennett (Francis Crick), Stephen Campbell Moore (Maurice Wilkins), Patrick Kennedy (Don Caspar) and Joshua Silver (Ray Gosling). PHOTOGRAPH 51 opens at the Noel Coward Theatre tonight 14 September, with previews from 5 September, and runs until 21 November.

PHOTOGRAPH 51 also sees the return of MGC to the West End following their critically acclaimed season in 2013/14, also at the Noel Coward Theatre. The company is committed to reaching as wide an audience as possible through accessible ticket prices across their theatre work, and are offering over 20,000 tickets at £10 (including booking fee and restoration levy), which is 25% of the tickets for the entire run, across all levels of the auditorium. In addition, the company will stage access performances - with both captioned and audio described performances.

"The instant I saw the photograph my mouth fell open and my pulse began to race." Does Rosalind Franklin know how precious her photograph is? In the race to unlock the secret of life it could be the one to hold the key. With rival scientists looking everywhere for the answer, who will be first to see it and more importantly, understand it? Anna Ziegler's extraordinary play looks at the woman who cracked DNA and asks what is sacrificed in the pursuit of science, love and a place in history.

Nicole Kidman makes her much anticipated return to the London stage in the role of Rosalind Franklin, the woman who discovered the secret to Life,in the UK première of Anna Ziegler's award-winning play. The production reunites Kidman and Grandage following their recent collaboration on the forthcoming feature film Genius.

Will Attenborough plays James Watson. For theatre, his work includes Another Country (Chichester Festival Theatre and Trafalgar Studios) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (Cambridge Arts Theatre). For television, his credits includes War and Peace, Midwinter of the Spirit, Apocalypse Slough, Home Fires, Father Brown, In the Flesh, Utopia and The Hollow Crown: Henry IV Parts 1 & 2.

Edward Bennett plays Francis Crick. His theatre work includes Love's Labour's Lost, Love's Labour's Won, Hamlet (RSC) Things We Do For Love, School For Scandal, In The Next Room, Pygmalion, Little Nell, Habeas Corpus and Measure for Measure (Theatre Royal Bath), One Man, Two Guvnors (National Theatre Tour), Lovesong (Frantic Assembly), 3 Farces, Nan, Skin Game, Diana of Dobsons (Orange Tree Theatre), Plenty (Crucible Theatre, Sheffield),The Tempest and As You Like It (BAM/Tour/The Old Vic), Hay Fever (Chichester Festival Theatre) and Othello (Donmar Warehouse). For television, his work includes Miranda, The Scum Also Rises, Above Suspicion and After You've Gone; and for film, Skyfall, War Horse, Hamlet and Friends Just United.

Stephen Campbell Moore plays Maurice Wilkins. His theatre work includes Chimerica (Almeida Theatre and Harold Pinter Theatre), Berenice (Donmar Warehouse), Clybourne Park (Royal Court and Wyndham's Theatre), All My Sons (Apollo Theatre), The History Boys (National Theatre and Broadway),Much Ado About Nothing and Anthony and Cleopatra (RSC), A Midsummer Night's Dream (Albery Theatre), and Richard II and Coriolanus (Almeida at Gainsborough Studio). For television, his credits include Stag, The Wrong Mans, The Go Between, Our Zoo, Hunted, Just Henry, Titanic, Sleepyhead, Pulse, Ben Hur, Larkrise to Candleford, A Short Stay in Switzerland, Ashes to Ashes, Rough Crossings, Hustle, Wallis and Edward, He Knew He Was Rightand Byron; and for film, The Lady in the Van, The Ones Below, Adam Jones, Moonwalkers, Man Up, Complicit, Johnny English Reborn, Season of the Witch, Sea Wolf, The Day, The Bank Job, Amazing Grace, The History Boys, A Good Woman and Bright Young Things.

Patrick Kennedy plays Don Caspar. For theatre, his work includes No Quarter (Royal Court), The Glass Menagerie (Shared Experience), Measure for Measure (Plymouth Theatre Royal and tour) Therese Raquin (National Theatre), Everything is Illuminated (Hampstead Theatre), Suddenly Last Summer(Sheffield Lyceum and Albery Theatre), A Midsummer Night's Dream and Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Bristol Old Vic). For television, his work includesChurchill's Secret, The Money, Downton Abbey, Murder on the Home Front, Boardwalk Empire, Peep Show, Parade's End, Black Mirror: The National Anthem, Married Single Other, The 39 Steps, Consuming Passions, Einstein and Eddington, The Somme, Bleak House and Cambridge Spies; and for filmLondon Has Fallen, Mr Holmes, November Man, War Horse, The Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, The Last Station, Me and Orson Welles, Atonement, In Transit, A Good Year, Munich, The Tulse Luper Suitcases and Nine Lives.

Nicole Kidman plays Rosalind Franklin. Her theatre work includes The Blue Room (Donmar Warehouse and Cort Theatre, Broadway - Evening StandardAward, Olivier Award nomination). For television, her work includes Hemingway & Gellhorn (Emmy nomination, Golden Globe nomination); and her extensive film work includes To Die For (Golden Globe for Best Actress), Days of Thunder, Moulin Rouge! (Academy Award nomination, Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical), The Others (Golden Globe nomination, Saturn Award), The Hours (Academy Award, BAFTA, Golden Globe for Best Actress and Berlin Silver Bear), Cold Mountain, Fur: An Imaginary Portrait of Diane Arbus, Stoker, Rabbit Hole (Golden Globe for Best Actress, Academy Award nomination), The Paperboy and Paddington. Upcoming films include Strangerland, Queen of the Desert, Genius, Lion and Secret in Their Eyes.

Joshua Silver plays Ray Gosling. For theatre, his work includes Wolf Hall/Bring Up the Bodies (Aldwych Theatre/Winter Garden Theater, Broadway), A Tale of Two Cities (Royal and Derngate), A Midsummer Night's Dream, Blue Stockings (Shakespeare's Globe), Trelawny of the 'Wells' (Donmar Warehouse) and The Hotel Plays (Grange Hotel).

Anna Ziegler's plays include The Last Match (upcoming at The Old Globe in San Diego, CA and City Theatre in Pittsburgh, PA), A Delicate Ship (upcoming in New York City at The Playwrights Realm; previously produced at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park), Dov and Ali (Theatre503), Another Way Home (upcoming in Washington DC at Theater J; previously produced at Magic Theatre, San Francisco, CA), and BFF (WET Productions at the DR2 Theatre, New York City). She has been commissioned by Manhattan Theatre Club, Seattle Repertory Theatre, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Virginia Stage Company and New Georges. Her plays have been developed at The Sundance Theatre Lab, The O'Neill National Playwrights Conference, The Williamstown Theatre Festival, New York Stage and Film, The Araca Group, Old Vic New Voices, and Soho Rep's Writer/Director Lab, among many others.

Michael Grandage is Artistic Director of the Michael Grandage Company in London which he set up with Producer James Bierman in 2012. For the company he directed Henry V, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Cripple of Inishmaan, Peter and Alice and Privates on Parade as part of the season at the Noel Coward Theatre, Dawn French: 30 Million Minutes (national tour and West End run at the Vaudeville Theatre later this year) and the forthcoming feature film Genius. He was Artistic Director of the Donmar Warehouse (2002-2012) and Artistic Director of Sheffield Theatres (2000-05). He is the recipient of Tony, Drama Desk, Olivier, Evening Standard, Critics' Circle and South Bank Awards. He has been awarded Honorary Doctorates by the University of London, Sheffield University and Sheffield Hallam University and is President of Central School of Speech and Drama. He was appointed CBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours 2011. His book, A Decade At The Donmar, was published by Constable & Robins in 2012. His work for the Donmar Warehouse included Richard II with Eddie Redmayne, Luise Miller with Felicity Jones, King Lear with Derek Jacobi, Red with Alfred Molina and Eddie Redmayne (also New York, Tony and Drama Desk Awards Best Director), Hamlet with Jude Law (also Elsinore and New York), Ivanov with Kenneth Branagh (Evening Standard and Critics Circle Award Best Director), Madame de Sade with Judi Dench and Rosamund Pyke, The Chalk Gardenwith Penelope Wilton (Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards Best Director), Frost/Nixon with Michael Sheen and Frank Langella (also Gielgud, New York, USA tour, Tony Nomination Award for Best Director), Othello with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ewan McGregor (Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards for Best Director), The Wild Duck (Critics' Circle Award Best Director), Guys and Dolls (Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Production), Grand Hotel (Olivier Award for Outstanding Musical Production and Evening Standard Award Best Director), Caligula (Olivier Award Best Director), Merrily We Roll Along (Evening Standard Award Best Director. For Sheffield Theatres he directed many productions including Don Carlos with Derek Jacobi (Evening Standard Award Best Director).

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos

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