Telling the story of a WWII operation to prevent the German invasion of Sicily, you might think that “Operation Mincemeat” would be a tense, historical thriller. But, brought to life by theatre group SplitLip, this musical is an out-and-out comedy, full of incredibly funny caricatures whilst still remaining historically accurate (at least, to the best of my knowledge!).
The play centres around a group of MI5 officials who dream up a scheme to fool the Germans by planting fake documents on a homeless corpse. The idea is devised by Charles Cholmondeley (David Cumming), a scientist who lacks confidence and is obsessed with newts. With the help of Ewen Montagu (Natasha Hodgson), the two of them manage to convince officer Johnny Bevan (Zoe Roberts) to allow them to push ahead with this operation, which comes to be known as “Operation Mincemeat”. They are helped by secretary Hester Leggett (Jak Malone) and typist Jean Leslie (Claire Marie Hall), both women struggling to make themselves heard in a man’s world.
The music of the play is heavily influenced by other musicals of the 21st Century – there are clearly comparisons to be drawn with Hamilton (especially the song “Born to Lead”, which is basically OM’s version of “My Shot”), and Six – in particular, the song “All the ladies”, which sees the women of Churchill’s war rooms singing about their role in the war effort.
The cast all multi-role, with each actor taking on a multitude of different, melodramatic characters. Gender is never an issue – the actors all play men and women as the play requires. This allows for cameos from many interesting people, including James Bond writer Ian Fleming (Roberts, who quickly annoys everyone with his ridiculous ideas of underwater cars) and mortician Bernard Spilsbury (Malone, complete with leather apron covered in glittery red blood).
In order to make their ruse believable, the folks from MI5 have to invent a backstory for their dead body. This includes writing a love letter from a sweetheart, which leads to my favourite moment of the musical – the song “Dear Bill”, in which Hester devises a letter to Bill that is clearly influenced by events in her own life. For this performance, Malone earned himself a lengthy and well-deserved round of applause. Truly captivating.
The comedic timing is everything in this play. Not only are the songs incredibly fast paced, the jokes all land perfectly meaning that there is rarely a minute that passes without a laugh. The entire play finishes with “A Glitzy Finale” as the team clearly blow their west end budget on over the top set that is sure to leave a smile on your face.
And, just before the final curtain falls, there’s just enough time to clear up one last mystery – that of Glyndwr Michael, a homeless man who died after eating rat poison, and became integral to one of the most successful operations of the second world war.
A fabulous show, and one I would heavily recommend. Now I’m off to listen to the soundtrack a dozen more times.
Tom Morley, October 2023
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