Oppenheimer, the play that charts the life of the man who helped create the atomic bomb, is to open in London following a successful run in Stratford with the Royal Shakespeare Company.
It focuses on Robert Oppenheimer, who developed atomic weapons during the second world war as one of the directors of the Manhattan Project. He was struck by the magnitude – in every sense – of his creation on seeing it tested in the New Mexico desert, quoting the Hindu god Vishnu in the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” Following the successful and devastating deployment of his invention in Japan, prompting the end of the war, he devoted himself to the safe management of atomic energy and opposed the development of the even more destructive hydrogen bomb.
The play was written by Tom Morton-Smith, initally pitched to the RSC as part of an eight-play cycle looking at 20th-century physics. Reviewing its debut at the Swan theatre in Stratford, The Guardian’s Michael Billington gave it five stars, calling it “massively impressive... Morton-Smith never loses sight of Oppenheimer’s mix of missionary zeal and personal detachment.”
The original cast will move to the London production at the Vaudeville, including John Heffernan as Oppenheimer, “whom the role elevates to star-status” according to Billington.
Morton-Smith said he’s “gobsmacked” by the transfer, saying: “When I first pitched the idea to the RSC, their brief was bring us the biggest thing you can think of. It seemed relevant to look at the origins of a science that has influenced and changed the world.” The RSC’s creative director Gregory Doran said: “Tom took up our challenge and has tackled a complex subject and some extraordinary personalities, and has woven a magnificently written and compelling narrative around them.”
The Vaudeville production begins on Friday 27 March.
