"Operation Mincemeat" at Fortune Theatre

 This is one of those shows where we just took a flier on it. We were coming to London and had one night where we could fit in a play, and didn't have a clear favorite for what to see. Operation Mincemeat was getting great reviews, so since nothing else jumped out at us, we decided to check it out.

The Play

Based on real events in World War II that also became a movie, Operation Mincemeat refers to a plan concocted by British Intelligence (MI5) to convince the Germans to move their troops out of Sicily, where the Allies planned to invade. It's an example of some of the Hail Mary chances the Allies managed to pull off. In this case, they planted fake invasion plans (pointing to Sardinia) on a corpse made to look like a British pilot who crashed in Spain. The notion being that if the Germans found these plans they would believe the invasion was coming to Sardinia and move their troops there, thus enabling the Allies to invade Sicily as planned.

So we get a bunch of MI5's smartest guys in the room all trying to posture and promote their own schemes. The story here is as much about the infighting and internal politics in the intelligence service as it is about the actual operation. But it's charmingly and disarmingly done with self-deprecating musical numbers. On the face of it, the whole thing seems a bit daft--both the actual WWII operation and the scheme to portray it in a musical comedy--but it works. It's especially effective that the whole show is Brits poking fun at their own system: prep schools, class differences, bureaucracy, Ian Fleming, etc.

The show was written by four artists, David Cumming, Felix Hagan, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoë Roberts, and all by Hagan are still appearing in the show. It's kind of staged like a musical revue, but also like a more traditional musical theater piece. It's silly, but never veers so far off into the silliness that it gets truly outrageous, which probably saves the whole endeavor.

The Production

The show includes five actors, which as far as I can tell are sort of a revolving group from the nine cast members. Essentially there are two actors who can play each of the five roles/tracks, but I have no idea how they choose who goes on when. Our cast included two of the three original writers (Natasha Hodgson as Montagu and Zoë Roberts as Johnny Bevan). All five actors portray male and female characters and do a lot of quick switching. It's really quite impressive.

Of particular note was Jak Malone in the role of Hester Leggett. He evoked a lot of pathos in a wide-ranging performance. Frankly, all of the actors have to have a lot of range, but Malone in particular showed both breadth of skill and a depth of empathy that was especially impressive.

The Fortune Theatre is pretty small, so even from our seats toward the rear, we had a great view. Also, the full house was filled with a terrific variety of people, from teens to seniors, and all seemed to be enjoying it immensely. I've not seen a theater production in a long time that seems to have such a broad appeal, particularly with the younger crowd. There seemed to be multiple groups of roughly high school aged kids out together, where I would have expected them to be at a movie or something. That was refreshing to see! And particularly surprising since the subject matter revolves around WWII, which doesn't seem like prime teen viewing today.

The Bottom Line

If I had to sum things up in two words, I would probably choose "funny" and "charming". And when I say funny, I mean that in a genuinely comedic sense, where the audience was engaged and amused, but not just yukking it up from one gag to the next. And charming in the sense that although the play pokes fun at almost everyone, it does so in a gentle and affectionate way that engages rather than distances one from the objects of the fun. In that sense, it's a remarkably subtle and thoughtful effort.

We genuinely enjoyed the show. It feels like a truly British theater experience, but even as foreigners (and Americans were definitely among the targets of the jokes!) we felt welcomed and included in the crowd. It definitely felt like a slice of local culture, rather than just a piece of art for art's sake.

So I would recommend this for a light, fun evening at the theater. They're currently selling tickets through September 23rd, but I think it's pretty much an open-ended run at this point.