THE CUTTER INCIDENT

About the show

Pulitzer Prize and Tony Award-winning playwright Doug Wright (I Am My Own Wife) joins forces with two-time Tony Award-winning director Des McAnuff, Founding Artistic Director of La Jolla Playhouse (Jersey Boys, The Who’s Tommy, The Ballad of Johnny and June), to bring an extraordinary chapter of American history to the stage. It’s 1955, and scientist Jonas Salk is racing toward a breakthrough that could save countless lives and change the course of history. He plans to stop the polio epidemic that is sweeping across America. But as the stakes mount, he finds himself caught in a volatile compound of warring scientists, political agendas, laboratory disasters and growing distrust of vaccines. Set at the dawn of a medical breakthrough whose legacy lives on at San Diego’s Salk Institute, The Cutter Incident is a gripping exploration of ambition, doubt and the forces behind scientific progress. In a moment when questions of science, trust and public health feel more urgent than ever, this riveting new play asks what happens when the drive to save lives collides with politics, fear and human fallibility.