Photograph 51

Ziegler’s thoughtful, empathetic play brings home with bitter comedy the unlovely male-domination of this world in the 1950s … glorious. Independent

London 1953. Scientists are on the verge of discovering what they call the secret of life: the DNA double helix. Providing the key is driven young physicist Rosalind Franklin. But if the double helix was the breakthrough of the 20th century, then what kept Franklin out of the history books?

A play about ambition, isolation, and the race for greatness.

Photograph 51 premiered in the UK in London’s West End in 2015 in a production which starred Nicole Kidman, where it won the WhatsOnStage Award for Best New Play.

Published for the first time in Methuen Drama’s Modern Classics series, this edition features a brand-new introduction by Mandy Greenfield.