Country Mouse

Doctor’s orders

MARK RYLANCE is mesmerising in his new play Dr Semmelweis, in which he plays a doomed, maverick, German-hungarian physician, who discovers that washing hands saves lives (sound familiar?). Rachel and I were visiting Anna, now in her final year at Bristol university. It has been a strange time to be a student. For much of her first year, lecturers were on strike, then Covid overtook last year and now the lecturers are planning to strike again.

However, Anna knows her restaurants and there can be few better places to eat than Bristol. We were spoiled by her knowledge at Wilson’s, Lido and the wonderful cheese and beer emporium Two Belly, before the Oscar winner’s astonishing performance at the Old Vic.

In the play, which is based on a true story, the death rate at a maternity ward run by male doctors in 19th-century Vienna far exceeds that run next door by midwives. Eventually, Dr Semmelweis realises that the male doctors—who perform autopsies because women are not allowed to—are transferring invisible infections to their patients and that washing hands will reduce this. His truth is not believed by his superiors—but, as we all know, truth isn’t always convenient for those in charge.