With this year marking the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima, there is no better time to revisit Tom Morton-Smith play about the making of the bomb by a group of scientists in California, led by J Robert Oppenheimer. Originally produced by the RSC in 2015, before transferring to the West End in 2016, this one-off play-reading hosted by the RSC on YouTube is directed by Angus Jackson and stars John Heffernan as the father of the atomic bomb, a fascinatingly flawed and tragic hero or anti-hero.

About RSC: Oppenheimer

We are reuniting the original cast of our sell-out 2014/15 production for a one-off play reading of Tom Morton-Smith’s biographical epic Oppenheimer. 1939: fascism spreads across Europe, Franco marches on Barcelona and two German chemists discover the processes of atomic fission. In Berkeley, California, theoretical physicists recognise the horrendous potential of this new science: a weapon that draws its power from the very building blocks of the universe. The ambitious and charismatic J Robert Oppenheimer finds himself uniquely placed to spearhead the largest scientific undertaking in all of human history. Determined to cast off his radical past and struggling with tempestuous relationships with his colleagues, wife and mistress, Oppenheimer finds himself thrust into a position of power, racing to create a weapon so devastating that it would bring about an end not just to the Second World War, but to all war.