What’s up everybody?! I’ve been up to a lot since my last blog post a few days ago, including getting some vegan (and non-vegan) fish and chips! Today, despite all of the other things I’ve been doing, I am going to talk a little bit about the show that we saw last night called Operation Mincemeat. It actually has a theme which applies to all you stalkers really well: spying.

Operation Mincemeat is a comedic musical about an actual operation during the Second World War where the British, on the side of the Allied Forces, distracted Germany from the invasion of Sicily by making them believe that they Allies were attacking Sardinia instead.

How would they do this, you ask? Well of course, they floated the dead body of a supposedly dead Allied pilot carrying totally-not-falsified documents and plans of the Allied invasion of Sardinia (which didn’t happen!) so that Hitler would move his troops to Sardinia instead. This plan obviously has a lot of factors that depend basically entirely on chance… The idea that the Germans would actually find the body at all is entirely absurd, when you think of it. Surprisingly, this all worked through a lot of planning and not a small amount of luck.

While I would recommend reading up on this operation, (because it really is interesting; between writing this paragraph and the last one I went on an about 20 minute Wikipedia rabbit hole reading about it!) I am going to talk about the usage of the idea of spying in the play, as well as the function of the actual operation as a theatrical event.

In the play, the character Ewen Montagu is suspected of passing classified information about the operation to his brother, who is a communist spy. It is shown to be a discreet and frowned upon position, obviously, but difficult to detect. By the end of the play, nearly everyone suspects Ewen of spying for the Axis powers, though he is only collecting information to write a history of what the team has done to win the war. Because of this circumstance, it turns out that all of the characters are spying on him as well, which results in a culture of mistrust.

The creation of this team, however, was indeed a theatrical performance. They dressed up this dead man and created an entire life for him, which is what actors do all of the time, though not usually to corpses…I feel like that would be unethical. However, we take a character on a page and decide what their inner life is–what they do when nobody’s looking, how they treat others, and even what they would wear or put into their house. All of these things play into how theatermakers view the world and their craft. What the officers in Operation Mincemeat did was exactly that, though it was more like the improvisation of the character. Similarly, they did it to achieve a purpose, which is what all of theatre is about.

That’s all I’ve got to say about that! I really enjoyed Operation Mincemeat–I’ve said a few times since seeing the show that I wasn’t sure about the concept of a military operation during WWII being presented as a comedic musical at intermission, but by the time the curtain dropped, I was sure. Operation Mincemeat is a masterpiece of very tasteful comedy, and I enjoyed every moment. The pacing and resolution is all so satisfying and definitely was a breath of fresh air. Finally, I know all of you have been waiting for an answer to the question I posed in the title, and I wish I could tell you. I went to Operation Mincemeat specifically to find that out for you, but they couldn’t tell me either. So I just don’t know. Maybe you should ask this guy.

Next up on the blog–I’ll be writing a whole blog post about Borough Market and its food, so if all of you are looking to me for meal inspiration, you’re in for a treat!

CW

Imagine.

The world is at war, and you are losing. You desperately need to strike the opposing forces, but your plans must not be discovered. To take it further than that, you need to create an entirely fake set of plans to feed the enemy in the hopes that they will leave a key location undefended. But how do you make these fake plans believable?

Why, plant them on a dead body made to look like a soldier who crashed and drowned at sea of course!!

This may sound bizarre, unlikely, and downright unbelievable to some, but it is actually based on the true story of Operation Mincemeat from WWII.

Desperate for a way to invade Sicily without strong resistance, naval intelligence officers Ewen Montagu and Charles Cholmondeley concocted a plan in which they would set a dead body adrift in Spanish waters with the hopes of the Germans finding it. On the body, they planted fake documents and papers detailing Allied plans to invade Sardinia, hoping it would draw German forces away from Sicily. In addition to the fake plans, Montagu and Cholmondeley created an entire life for their “drowned soldier.” His name became Major William Martin, and he had receipts from his bank and nights out and love letters from his nonexistent girl back home. All these tiny details were created to make the body and life of the soldier look real to any suspicious Germans, and in the end, it worked!! The Germans bought the fake plans, and moved their forces to Sardinia which allowed the Allied forces to invade through Sicily with minimal losses.

This story is remarkable, though admittedly morbid, but at its heart, it involves the mistreatment of a real person. Glyndwr Michael is the real name behind the fake story, and I appreciate that the writers of Operation Mincemeat made sure to honor him. The musical is a very comedic telling of this seemingly dark story, and it could have easily turned sour and distasteful had they not taken the time to point out the ethical flaws in the plan, as well as the victory it allowed.

Overall, I loved this show. The actors were phenomenal, and I was amazed at the skill it took to keep up with the lyrically complex patter songs. The set was also incredible, and each time a new door or feature was introduced, I was stunned. The versatility of the set was a a technical marvel. The lighting design was brilliant as well, and so was the costuming. There were so many quick changes throughout the show, as five actors played fifty plus characters, but the designer had clearly thought through how to create magnificent pieces while still allowing things to move at a brisk pace. The only thing that presented a problem at times was the sound mixing. It could have been where I was sitting in the theatre, but there were a few moments where it was hard to hear the actors over the band. Thankfully, I did not miss any important lines due to this, but I could see some people being taken out by the potentially missed dialogue.

The operation undertaken in this play and in real life represents a kind of theatre. The officers behind the plan had to create a character (Major Martin), and they gave him an incredibly detailed background of given circumstances. These circumstances were meant to mislead the Germans, so there was also a clear objective and target audience for the deception. Not only do Martin’s given circumstances mirror certain aspects of theatre, but Haselden’s work in Spain represents theatre in a more literal sense. He had to act and perform on behalf of the allies. If one considers acting as living truthfully under imaginary circumstances, then it could be said that Haselden was doing this by behaving as if the Allies did not have a plan when they did.

Mincemeat.

The ingredients usually include spice, fat, nuts, sugar, fruits, and…. meat. The term for this food comes from 15th Century England, when this mincemeat was made to preserve meat. (I am getting this information from the Food Network, so if it is incorrect, blame them). What is Operation Mincemeat, you might ask?

A really good musical.

Oh, and also a British deception plan during World War II to trick the Nazis into thinking the Allied powers were going to invade Sardinia instead of Sicily. That’s kind of irrelevant, though.

Just kidding. It’s kind of what the whole musical is about.

It is interesting how the title of the operation relates to the tool used to carry out the deception– a preserved body. A deemed “useless,” body or “The Man Who Never Was,” became one of the most important aspects of the Allied powers winning the Second World War. A crazy idea by Charles Cholmondeley or “the bug man”– creating a faux drowned soldier revealing faux invasion plans– defied expectations and successfully diverted the German army from Sicily. The same Cholmondeley who stated that newts did, in fact, have anuses and a fear of death, he’s not so sure about.

What does it mean to be a spy?

First, being a spy is pretty cool and makes you seem mysterious. If you can keep a secret, at least.

But is it worth it: to deceive those who have sworn their trust in you? John Bevan certainly thought that this choice was worth it for Ewan Montagu. Adamant that Montagu was betraying the British military, Bevan set Hester Leggatt on a mission to discover if Montagu was stealing classified information about Operation Mincemeat to conspire with his Soviet Communist brother.

Because secret files about the operation were turning up lost and Montagu was oh-so calm about it, audience members could easily believe that he devised a plan to stop this mission in its tracks. This was so believable that not only Hester was against him, but soon came Jean and Charlie after. The presence of spying in this operation created an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust. It created a circle of deceit within a group of people who passionately planned their own deception. With lives on the line, who can you trust?

Was Levan so jaded by past broken trust that he felt he must question everyone’s intentions? Even though Montagu was readily prepared and excited for this mission, lies and duplicity were too common during this time, making it hard to hold out faith in anyone.

The musical hilariously represented spying in a way that reflected tropes of the Elizabethan Comedy of Errors through elements like mistaken identity, (William Martin’s faux identity), misdelivered letters (the telephone/briefcase bit), and characters “just missing,” each other, (this one is kind of a stretch, but it made me think of when Charlie kept trying to look in Montagu’s briefcases but kept getting interrupted and jumping when someone came in). The playwrights weaved these tropes into the theme of spying to give this heavy-weighted circumstance some chuckles. I giggled a lot.

To some, Operation Mincemeat could be considered a play within a play. Sanford Meisner famously coins acting as “living truthfully under imaginary circumstances.” Well, although Glyndwr Michael was not alive, he was living “dead-fully,” as Bill Martin under imaginary circumstances. An imaginary birth certificate, engagement, and really exciting night bar hopping. That’s close, right? It can be argued that Bill was an actor in the British intelligence’s play. The British Intelligence were the directors. And the costume designers. And the playwrights, too. The Nazi Army were their target audience and the waters of Huelva, Spain were their set.

Sounds pretty theatrical to me.

Operation Mincemeat was a hilarious retelling of an iconic historical moment, rich in character, musicality, and campiness. Truly a breath of fresh air and a show I don’t think I could ever get tired of!

All for now,

xoxo Gossip Girl

Operation Minced Meat was an absolute spectacle to watch on the stage. I enjoyed every moment of this hilarious musical. We’ve been on run of deep and dramatic straight plays, so it felt nice to stray away from that and get something a little more light hearted. I really appreciate the direction this show decided to go in. It easily could’ve been written as a straight play and succeeded in that manner. But I researched this show and it seems to have already been done as a serious drama. Just not on the stage but rather, on the silver screen. Twice. “The Man who Never Was”, which came out in 1956 and of course, “Operation Mincemeat”, the 2021 film. That being said, I enjoyed the bold decision to turn this into a self aware extravaganza that didn’t shy away from the touchy subject matter.

Speaking of touchy subject matter, I don’t think this show would be allowed to play in Germany. When Act II commenced, I was in awe. It was, for a lack of better words, a Nazi Party. I felt like I was in a club with the EDM styled music and spectacular choreography. And with all of the actors wearing glittery Nazi outfits, it wasn’t short of shock value. If it weren’t for the ending comment saying, “Whos side are you all on”? I think it might’ve offended a few folks. It very much felt like a standup comdey show at times which I really liked.

Spying is presented in this show in various ways. A moment that sticks out to me is when the informant from Spain known as Haselden was trying to make it clear that the suitcase indeed held top secret British information to the German spies. Haselden plays an important role in the spy process of this show.

Overall, I loved this show and I’m going to look into more of this remarkable moment in history.

Today we saw Operation Mincemeat and it was terrific. The music, lighting, and choreography was amazing. Several scenes the choreography was so good that I was baffled at how only five actors could pull it off. The comedic timing of the script and delivery of the lines made the entire performance an attention pulling spectacle. What really amazed me the most was the sheer versatility of the set. The actors used the entire set like a giant swiss army set with hidden doors, an entire lighting structure, and a foldout staircase. I had to pull my jaw off the floor every time they introduced another function to what I had first thought to be a regular flat wall. Several scenes in the choreography were mind blowing as any interaction with more than one phone ended up being hilarious and reminded me of the three stooges but the preciseness of it really impressed me. The music and singing for the production was also quite well done as I was bouncing along in my seat the whole time through every song. The actors’ performances were nothing to sneeze at either as there were some very compelling emotional scenes that were delivered beautifully. The song regarding writing the letter was amazingly sung and brought a healthy dose of seriousness to this humerus production. Essentially I think this play is worth watching to anyone looking to have a wonderful time. 

Regarding the prompt assignment, Spying is presented through the whole play it’s about espionage, the deception is a kind of theater as it has an intent theme and audience the germans being the audience the message being the importance of the briefcase and the intent being to convince the enemy utilizing a performance, props, costumes and set. Bill was even the character they created.

I loved this show! In terms of spying (if I’m understanding the prompt correctly) I think that spies are veryyy frowned upon in this time. Throughout the show they thought that Montague was a spy giving information to his brother, when in reality, he was just writing a short film? This was such a weird twist to me… but to be fair the whole show was unpredictable, I quite literally had no idea what was going to happen next.

They used spies to get all of their information as well. The spanish guy ( I forget his name) was their way of getting their information of how the operation was going. It’s very ironic because spies are so “bad” in their eyes yet they use their own to further their own agenda, but I guess that makes sense, eat or get eaten.

I would say the deception is kind of a form a theatre. I don’t really think lying is theatre in that sense, but I guess they did make Bill a whole character and gave him a back story and props and had an objective that he was supposed to fulfill, so I guess in a way there were theatrical elements to what they were doing. I enjoyed how detailed they got with Bills backstory and everything, which I guess is the whole reason it worked.

I just want to applaud the choreography and how detailed it was in literally every moment of the show, the actors did an insane job with all of it. The costume changes were also SO impressive, they would be off stage for 5 seconds and come on with a completely different outfit on.

I thought the actors were amazing! They all had beautiful voices and were all so funny. They also played their different parts so well, I think it was casted perfectly.

Overall, loved it!

Spying, a form of deception, was portrayed in Operation Mincemeat through Montagu being suspected of passing along confidential operation plans with his brother who was suspected of being a communist spy for the Nazis. The news of this suspicion slowly spread throughout the play letting a new character in on it as it progressed.

As you can imagine, as the characters found out about the alleged offense, their trust in Montagu diminished. They felt betrayed and were filled with fear of what was to come of the war.

There was also a spy in Spain that was actually working in favor of the British and took on the assignment of getting them to take the briefcase with the fake confidential documents.

There is a theatrical element to spying and deception. When you lie, you are acting. When you are acting, it’s theatre. What’s that saying? All the world’s a stage? Ah. There’s your answer. Spying and deception is theatre.

Not to mention the theatrical elements behind the actual deception that was the main operation. They made up a man (a character) and gave him a whole life (given circumstances) and receipts as proof (a script) and an intended audience (the Nazis). They put on a show and a won a whole war because of it.

Suspended belief is a tool that the director and playwright was counting on the audiences to be able to use well, another form of deception. They used all genders of actors playing multiple characters, while changing gender, and some of these transitions were on stage and perfectly visible to the audience. I believe that this was done on purpose. Is having a woman play a man not deception? Are we as audience members not spying? It raises a much bigger question of where the line lies between theatre and fancy lying/ voyeurism.

London Tide premiered in April 2024 and is being performed in the West End at the National Theatre. This production was adapted to the stage by Ben Power from the Charles Dickens’ novel, Our Mutual Friend. London Tide is directed by Ian Rickson, who has also directed many shows including The Red Lion, Evening at the Talk House, and Hamlet.

London Tide was very well executed and all the working pieces (lights, sound, set, costuming, vision, and acting) seamlessly worked together and added to each other to make a whole production. The style was minimalist. There were very limited props and the audience had to use their imagination. For example, the show was referencing a boat but the “boat” that was on stage was just a wooden plank being moved by the actors to show the rocking of the boat. The acting was fabulous and brought the play to life. Often, the actors would break the fourth wall and you could “hear” the thoughts running through their head. In addition to the actual actors, the stagehands had costumes as well and were integrated into the play to make the transitions from each scene flow better, it was seamless. I thought it was really cool how both the stage and lights moved together to simulate waves in water. Also, there was no confusion about where one chapter ended and another started, because the chapters were displayed above the stage. The music was very good. I found it interesting that the band was on the stage. It was not a distraction from the production. This show appeared to me to be a combination of a musical and an audio book. It felt like I was watching a book.

It’s difficult to say who the leads were since the cast was so small that almost everyone had a big part but if I had to pick, I’d say the leads were Bella Maclean, Tom Mothersdale, and Ami Tredrea. I think that Bella Maclean is probably the most well-known of the three because she has had a large role in the TV show Rivals. Tom Mothersdale has an impressively long list of credits to his name in theater, tv, film, and radio. Ami Tredrea has not been in many things, but she was the best singer in the production in my opinion. I highly recommend seeing this production. While I didn’t know beforehand if I would be able to sit through a three and a half hour show, I did not get bored once. The show has a really good story and the plot kept my attention during the entire show. The acting was above amazing and the singing was great. In fact, I could tell that the show was going to be amazing when the company started singing the first song.