Operation Mincemeat

Yesterday we watched Operation Mincemeat, a comedic musical of a British operation to trick Hitler into moving German troops off of Sicily so that allies could move in easily. It is actually based off of a true story! It takes place in 1943 and MI5 needs some plan to get the German army to move its troops from Sicily to a neighboring Italian island, Sardegna. Sicily was a key location that the allies really wanted to gain control of, but couldn’t due to the large number of enemy troops defending it. The plan devised by character Charles “Charlie” Cholmondeley was to send a fake British soldier’s dead body carrying fake confidential plans of an allied plan to invade Sardegna to Spain. They found a corpse and faked extensive documentation making him seem like a British soldier with a whole backstory. They planted their evidence in a briefcase attached to him and sent him via submarine right to the Spanish coast. When Spanish police find the body, German spies of which there were plenty would find the fake invasion plans and report the news to the German army. The plan and hope were that this would lead Hitler to command his army to move off of Sicily to Sardegna to protect it. Of course, Sardegna didn’t need any protection, as Sicily was what the allies were really after. Despite certain complications, the plan was successful! Hitler moved almost all his troops off Sicily, allowing allied troops to move right in with virtually no bloodshed, and gain control of Sicily.

I thought the play was great—it seemed well written, the acting was great and hilarious, and the set was interesting, too. It was written by five people who were the original cast, but unfortunately not the actors we saw. It would have been cool to see the writers perform, but I can’t complain about the cast we got. I believe our Charlie was new to the part, seeing as how I don’t think I see him on the cast list on the website, and during final bows the rest of the cast singled him out for an applause. On their Instagram they posted a welcome to the cast for a George Jennings, who I believe was who we saw. I thought he was such a great actor, and I really like his portrayal of Charlie. I also loved Christian Andrews as Hester Leggatt. His performance, particularly her solo about her lost love was so amazing. Overall, it was just a really fun and funny play, where you are laughing along and you can tell the cast is having so much fun too. I think it’s a great play to go see, I highly recommend!

In Operation Mincemeat, spying is apparently very common. The characters, who are MI5, mention spies from Britain, Germany, and the USSR. The whole operation is dependent on a German spy being in Spanish police. And even when the plan starts going awry, they never seem concerned that their information won’t be spied on. When they are creating their fake soldier, they have to think about every detail to ensure there won’t be any room for suspicion. They fill the man’s briefcase with the fake invasion plans of course, but they also have to create personal items that make the scene seem more legitimate. They go shopping for him and even create a fake fiancée for him. This process was just like creating background for a character you’re playing. They had to thing about the character in depth to make their fake solider seem as real as possible. Similarly, this is the goal and process of an actor trying to bring their character to life, though I suppose their situation was a bit more life-and-death.