The 'true' story of : THE MAN WHO NEVER WAS
“…Corble’s treatment of the historical material is masterful, and a pleasure to watch unfold. The award-winning playwright weaves humour with heartache to create several memorable characters, classic one-liners and some genuinely touching moments…”
Ben Crisp, Adelaide, for Buzzcuts’ Online Review, 2010.
"“Operation Mincemeat” is a charming, smart and funny play based on a true story of deceit and misdirection during World War II.
The real Operation Mincemeat helped persuade the Nazis to believe that, following their invasion of North Africa, the Allies intended to invade Greece and Sardinia, rather than Sicily. But the play, concentrates on the oddball boffins behind the planning of the audacious scheme.
Topped by a respectable cast, a good script by Simon Corble and comfortable direction by Bronwyn Palmer, it is, in its quiet, classical British war movie style, a fine production... “Operation Mincemeat” is blessed with many bright moments, nice lines and colourful characters all wrapped up in an affable and entertaining package. It’s definitely worth the entrance fee."
Review by Stephen Davenport, for the Adelaide Theatre Guide, 2010
“…Corble’s treatment of the historical material is masterful, and a pleasure to watch unfold. The award-winning playwright weaves humour with heartache to create several memorable characters, classic one-liners and some genuinely touching moments…”
Ben Crisp, Adelaide, for Buzzcuts’ Online Review, 2010.
"“Operation Mincemeat” is a charming, smart and funny play based on a true story of deceit and misdirection during World War II.
The real Operation Mincemeat helped persuade the Nazis to believe that, following their invasion of North Africa, the Allies intended to invade Greece and Sardinia, rather than Sicily. But the play, concentrates on the oddball boffins behind the planning of the audacious scheme.
Topped by a respectable cast, a good script by Simon Corble and comfortable direction by Bronwyn Palmer, it is, in its quiet, classical British war movie style, a fine production... “Operation Mincemeat” is blessed with many bright moments, nice lines and colourful characters all wrapped up in an affable and entertaining package. It’s definitely worth the entrance fee."
Review by Stephen Davenport, for the Adelaide Theatre Guide, 2010
A scene in the office of Naval Intelligence, from the fringe production in Adelaide, 2010.
With an Arts Council England development grant and backing from The Library Theatre Company, Manchester, in 2008, with my company Found Theatre I developed my partly-written script of this remarkable World War Two story into what many people have told me is the best thing I have ever created. A thriller, for a cast of 5 or 6 versatile actors, in a style deliberately echoing that of the Powell and Pressburger films from the 1940's, it takes the audience on a rollercoaster ride of emotions. We gave a script-in-hand performance of the play at The Library Theatre in 2008, which was incredibly well received by the audience.
Strange, then, that it has yet to be properly staged in the UK - despite those excellent reviews from the scratch company in Adelaide, who staged it as part of the city's fringe festival in 2010. Just one of those things in the theatre world.. Nick Hern, of Nick Hern Books, after reading the script, told me he will definitely want to publish if I can get it produced... indeed, there is so much positive feeling behind this one... If you are interested in becoming the first theatre in the Northern hemisphere to produce this highly entertaining work....click on CONTACT...
Strange, then, that it has yet to be properly staged in the UK - despite those excellent reviews from the scratch company in Adelaide, who staged it as part of the city's fringe festival in 2010. Just one of those things in the theatre world.. Nick Hern, of Nick Hern Books, after reading the script, told me he will definitely want to publish if I can get it produced... indeed, there is so much positive feeling behind this one... If you are interested in becoming the first theatre in the Northern hemisphere to produce this highly entertaining work....click on CONTACT...
The spy, O'Reilly, with the valiant Pamela in her London flat. From the Adelaide fringe production.
My play, OPERATION MINCEMEAT was born out of a childhood obsession with the true story of The Man Who Never Was, after seeing the 1956 film of that title, based on Ewen Montagu's (heavily censored) account of the events. Stylistically, it is heavily influenced by other British films of the 1940's and 50's and also by my own parents' experience of the war. My father, after going through full training to be a spy, (he had an incredible gift for foreign languages) ended up as an RAF pilot flying in a Coastal Command squadron. Then, in a very murky and deeply intriguing episode, he "crash landed" his aircraft on a beach in neutral Portugal, in 1943, the same Spring that this extraordinary mincemeat plot was being launched, just along that same coast… ‘A spot of engine trouble’ was what we were told as children…but there was a definite twinkle in my mother’s eye…He, like so many, would never talk about his wartime experiences. He and his crew set fire to the aircraft and all the documents they were carrying and were at liberty for a few days, before being interned and sent home on a ship. Later in life, (when I was in my teens) I was amazed to hear him speaking fluent Portuguese with some waiters in a restaurant in Manchester. To my knowledge, that 'trip' in '43 was his only visit to Portugal. And there was a whole pile of letters written in Portuguese, with Portuguese stamps, at the bottom of my parents' wardrobe. When I asked my mother about them at some point in the 1990's, she told me she had burnt them...and remained tight-lipped until her dying day.
BIll and Avril - one of no less than two love stories that run as subplots throughout
