Brilliant! Simply brilliant!
Operation Mincemeat tells the ridiculous true story of one of the key intelligence missions of the Second World War, where British operatives invented an officer (using a stolen corpse) to trick Hitler into moving troops away from Sicily into Sardinia. The show is both a farce and a spy thriller, propped up by a fantastically talented cast and a catchy score.
The 5 person cast (Christian Andrews, Seán Carey, Charlotte Hanna-Williams, Holly Sumpton, Jamie-Rose Monk) is simply extraordinary, all of the actors taking on multiple roles with ease and sustaining huge amounts of physicality across the 2-and-a-half hour run time. All of the actors get to showcase their comedic range, and in a 5 person cast there is nowhere to hide, with the whole cast on stage for more or less the entire run time. Particular praise should be offered to the chemistry between Holly Sumpton and Seán Carey as the rakish Ewen Montagu and the anxious Charles Cholmondeley. A particular highlight comes in the song Dear Bill, where one of the central characters mourns her lost lover, which left zero dry eyes in the house.
There were parts of the show that did not land for me. The irreverence was occasionally grating (the start of the second act featuring camp Nazis did not land for me), and I generally found the pop numbers weaker than the rest of the score. It also seems a bit of a loss to not acknowledge the fact that Ewen Montagu was Jewish at any point, it could have potentially added a layer of complexity to the story and more emotional depth.
Operation Mincemeat is one of the major fringe theatre successes of the last decade. The show is the best West End reviewed show in history, scooping up 88 five star reviews. It began as a performance in the 77 seat New Diorama Theatre, and has gone on to be produced in larger and larger venues. It is now on tour across the UK. To be clear, the show is not a success in spite of its fringe theatre roots, but indeed because of them. So much of what works about the show such as the humour, the versatility of its actors and the pace is totally characteristic of Fringe shows. In a time where arts budgets are ever tightening, Operation Mincemeat is a shining example of what can happen when we let fringe theatre shine.
Operation Mincemeat is in Glasgow until the 14th of November, and continues touring the UK until November 2027. Tickets here.