West End's PHOTOGRAPH 51 Finds Its Crick, Caspar & Watson

The Daily Mail writes that The Michael Grandage Company's UK premiere of Anna Ziegler's PHOTOGRAPH 51, starring Academy award-winning actress Nicole Kidman as Rosalind Franklin, the woman who discovered the secret to life, has gained several new cast members.

Joining recent addition Stephen Campbell Moore as Maurice Wilkins, stage vets Edward Bennett, Patrick Kennedy and Will Attenborough are set to play Francis Crick, Don Caspar and James Watson, respectively.

According to Grandage, Kidman and playwright Ziegler recently came together in New York for a read-through of the play. "We re-worked elements with the author. It has had some small productions, but the British premiere at the Noel Coward will be the biggest it has had. For all intents and purposes it's a new play," he told the Mail.

The official synopsis reads: "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."

Unlike Watson, Crick and Wilkins, Franklin never received the Nobel prize for her discoveries because the award was made in 1962, four years after she had died from cancer. As a rule, the prize is not awarded posthumously.

PHOTOGRAPH 51 opens at the Noel Coward Theatre on 14 September, with previews from 5 September, and runs until 21 November.