Natasha Hodgson

Operation Mincemeat

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Reviewed by Matt Forrest

Opening Night verdict ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

A few years ago, a close friend urged me to see a brilliantly talented theatre-comedy troupe called Kill the Beast, who were touring their second show: He Had Hairy Hands. This was a horror/comedy with plenty of bite. I remember laughing from start to finish, completely won over by its blend of absurdity and pitch-black humour. From that moment on, whenever Kill the Beast arrived in town with a new production, they became an absolute must-see for me.

Since then, Kill the Beast members David Cumming, Natasha Hodgson, and Zoe Roberts, alongside long-time collaborator Felix Hagan, have joined forces as the theatre company SpitLip. Together, they’ve created Operation Mincemeat, a new musical that has taken both the West End and Broadway by storm and is now embarking on a world tour.

The story revolves around a daring real-life British intelligence operation mounted in 1943. With the Allies preparing to invade Sicily, a small band of MI5 officers are tasked with distracting Nazi forces elsewhere. Their solution is astonishingly bold: they attach fabricated invasion documents to a dead body and release it where it will fall into enemy hands, trusting the Germans will be deceived. The body is carefully transformed into “Major William Martin,” a fictitious British Army officer furnished with love letters, a photograph of his sweetheart, and an intricately detailed backstory, every element meticulously designed to dupe the Third Reich.

The musical follows the team tasked with seeing the operation over the line from genesis to completion. There is Charles Cholmondeley (Seán Carey), the mastermind of the scheme, but lacking in self-confidence and the ability to present it to the top brass, Commanding officer John Bevan (Jamie-Rose Monk) in desperate need of a plan knowing if it fails it’ll be catastrophic for the British. Then there is Ewen Montagu (Holly Sumpton), whose over inflated self-confidence and ego sadly doesn’t match their actual talent.

The team are supported by two very different but no less essential secretaries; first there is senior secretary, Hester Leggatt (Christian Andrews), the matriarch of the group, a stickler for the rules who keeps the team in check. Finally new starter, Jean Leslie (Charlotte Hanna-Williams) who is ambitious and sees the role as an opportunity to forge a career for herself. Can the group pull together and help to pull off one the biggest ruse the world has ever known?

There is so much to enjoy about this fantastic show. The ensemble cast of five are superb right from the get-go playing over 80 characters between them. All work tremendously hard throughout and it’s a credit to their excellent performances and smooth costume changes that things never become confusing. All five get to showcase great comic timing and a gift for physical comedy.

The tone of the production is pitch perfect. The show brilliantly skewers the sheer absurdity of the situation, gleefully lampooning the British class system and that entrenched “stiff upper lip,” while also delivering a surprisingly sharp critique of gender inequality in the workplace. Even James Bond creator Ian Flemming gets a good going over!

Beneath the wit and rapid-fire comedy lie moments of genuine poignancy. The script takes care to acknowledge the sacrifices made not only by those serving on the front lines, but also by the loved ones waiting anxiously at home. Most moving of all is the tribute to Glyndwr Michael, the forgotten man whose body became the unlikely centre of the operation, a reminder that behind the outrageous deception was a real human life.

The musical numbers are top drawn throughout from the opening number, Born to Lead, a stinging assessment of the class system, right through to the big closer A Glitzy Finale. My own personal favourite Das Übermensch is as outrageous as it is hilarious. It’s the emotional, gut-punch songs Sail On Boys and Dear Bill that will live long in the memory, especially the later which is beautifully performed by Christian Andrews.

Smart, slick and uproariously funny, yet brimming with heart, Operation Mincemeat is an absolute triumph and fully deserving of its Olivier and Tony Awards recognition. Unlike the covert mission at its centre, there should be no secrecy surrounding this production, it richly deserves the spotlight. It’s a show that delights on first viewing and will be rewarded with repeat visits just as generously.

Operation Mincemeat is on at the Lowry until Saturday 28th February. Tickets are available here.

Further tour dates and ticket information can be found here.

Interview | Natasha Hodgson | Kill the Beast

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KTB 1

Lowry associate artists Kill the Beast return to the Salford venue next week with their new show Director’s Cut before they head off to Edinburgh Fringe for a summer of hilarious and a teeny bit haunting comedy japes.

Opening Night caught up with one fifth of the ‘Beast’s’ Natasha Hodgson to hear a little more about their latest offering and what exactly Lowry audiences can expect from the award-winning troop when Director’s Cut opens in the Aldridge Studio on 7th June.

Welcome to the worst film never made. Thankfully, there’s only one scene left to shoot… 

The fire has been contained, the wigs have been sterilised, and the star has been replaced after “The Accident”. Surely, nothing else can be waiting in the dark…

Director’s Cut, a madcap mash-up with a generous sprinkling of spoof horror introduces us to a 1970’s lead actress determined to take her revenge from beyond the grave, will she manage to stop filming on the most truly terrible and blisteringly bad movie she ever made?

Natasha Hodgson described to us where the idea for Director’s Cut came from. “We were chatting in a lovely sunny garden one day about our favourite horror films (classic sunshine chat) and how amazing, iconic films never seem to manage iconic sequels. We started talking about Rosemary’s Baby (one of our favourites) and imagining what a terrible sequel to Rosemary’s Baby – Rosemary’s Toddler? – might look like. And what if, whilst filming this terrible sequel, the spirit of the original film came back to wreak vengeance on this terrible follow up!”

Like previous shows The Boy Who Kicked Pigs, He Had Hairy Hands and Don’t Wake The Damp, Kill the Beast’s signature style of fast-paced action, original music and brilliantly bonkers comedy will lend itself perfectly to this silly yet sinister escapade. Natasha explained “I play a couple of characters, but my favourite is an older actor called Judy Goose, she’s been in the industry forever, and although she’s done a whole host of arthouse films, she’s always most excited about her adverts for Simpkin’s Soapy Scrubbers (“for wives and for mothers”) because of their big, fat pay-cheques. You’ll also learn that she’s a dab-hand at dealing with a dead body. But you’ll have to see the show to find out which one…”

KTB

Here at Opening Night we are enormous fans of Kill the Beast’s deliciously dark humour and inventive staging, Natasha confirmed while the humour remains there will be some new and rather exciting changes to the staging of this new production, “Our hearts belong to ridiculous, dark and silly jokes, and that’s always going to be at the forefront of everything we make. However, we’re ditching the projections this time around, in favour of actual AV screens – it makes ghost trickery a lot more fun. We’ve done three shows with projected sets, and this time around we wanted to build something solid from scratch – we’ve got a real life 70s film set on stage, and we can’t wait to cause catastrophes within it.”

Now in their sixth year as Lowry associate artists Natasha explained just how important the support from The Lowry has been, “We feel so, so lucky to be supported by them, and if more theatres provided the sort of 360 care and help that they do, the emerging theatre scene would be able to take a lot more risks, and make a lot more fantastic stuff. But hell, it’s a hard time for the arts. It’s a hard time for a lot of stuff. Best thing we can recommend? Come see a silly, fast-paced comedy about a vengeful, opinionated ghost. That will probably sort everything out.”

Director’s Cut opens at The Lowry on Thursday 7th June and runs until Saturday 9th tickets priced at £12 (£10 for concessions) can be found here. here.