Southwark Playhouse are currently having a great time with yet another run of Spit Lip's masterpiece - Operation Mincemeat.
I previously saw this show in September 2021 and was pretty blown away by it if I'm honest. It's back now for a 6 week run until the 19th February (which, like it's previous runs, is virtually sold out) and I already have 2 more trips to the show booked...!
The plot? In a nutshell, avoiding all spoilers, Operation Mincemeat centres on the real life WW2 operation involving the invasion of Sicily. A fake body, a plane crash, and a whole lot of miscommunication. Oh, and James Bond (don't ask!)
I'll fight anyone who tells me what the cast of Operation Mincemeat are not the hardest working cast in London right now - because they are. David Cumming, Claire-Marie Hall, Natasha Hodgson, Jak Malone & Zoe Roberts are all stars in their own right, each playing multiple different roles and giving each of them a distinctive voice. Men play women, women play men, everyone plays people older and younger than themselves, and within seconds of the character changes you have forgotten and instantly bought in to the next person you meet - and it's fantastic to see.
It is Malone, however, who walks away with the show with his performance as Hester Leggett, an MI5 operative. She is, in a way, the motherly figure throughout this story, and something of an anchor for Jean Leslie (a young typist who's flare gets her involved in the mission). Malone's delivery of Hester's musica monologue is an emotional sucker punch, in which a one-word name change in the lyric knocks the audience for six and sees a woman recounting her experience of the war before this one, and the sacrifices made to contribute to the victory.
Southwark Playhouse is a tricky venue to be able to do a lot in set-wise, but designer Helen Coyston has brilliantly put together a central setting that easily changes to so many different locations with the tiniest of changes. Add in Sherry Coenen's atmospheric lighting design, and you've one of the best looking small-scale productions I've probably ever seen.
The comparisons to modern musicals like Six are inevitable, as it has similar beginnings and also looks set to go on to bigger and better things. I'd argue this actually a better show overall though - the full two and a half hour running time enables every character to be fleshed out, and every idea to fully develop. If this is where British musical theatre is heading, then we have nothing to fear: Operation Mincemeat deserves to conquer the world.
(keep an eye out for the upcoming film starring Colin Firth and Penelope Wilton for a dramatic look at this story in more detail - it'll be well worth a watch.)
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
January 2022
Southwark Playhouse, London
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