SPOILERS!!!
In London’s West End Fortune Theatre’s production of Operation Mincemeat, spying is presented as a bit of a joke. Montagu didn’t seem to take the mission seriously saying everything will be fine, even if there were reasons to worry like when they found out another Ally plane crashed in the same spot on the same day with the same name and the best coroner in Spain looked over their dead soldier that didn’t actually die from drowning like he should have. Also during the entire song where the agent in Spain is trying to convince the Spanish coroner to keep the briefcase, all the actors got tangled in the phone lines because of the dancing. They kept switching their phones and their hats and actors kept coming on the stage pointing out the absurdity of everything by saying “could this get any more confusing?” At one point in the song someone actually comes in to sing happy birthday with a cake. Even though spying was treated as a bit of a joke, they also knew it was also important to be secretive so that others did not find out what they were doing.
I did not think that Operation Mincemeat, undertaken by the British Intelligence, was a form of theater. Instead, I think it was more like a magic act and they even said that in the show. For something to be a type of theater it has to be enjoyed or at least seen/acknowledged by people, but the operation in this production had to be kept a secret. It reminded me of the movie “Now You See Me” which is a movie about magicians who trick the government by doing a year-long magic trick. I was reminded of this movie because of the time it took to complete their trick. This is important because it shows that even though Operation Mincemeat took place over several months, it still can be recognised as a magic trick.
In conclusion I would say that the original Operation was not a kind of theater but it did have the potential to become theater if the story was only told to the people. Montagu knew this which is why he decided to write a book about it, which then got adapted to be a movie 3 years later and eventually adapted to stage. The first stage production premiered in several London theatres beginning in 2019, finally opening at the Fortune Theater in March 2023.
Theatre in London U of A 