Mincemeat

Synopsis

A man washing up a beach in Spain holds in a suitcase a history that will affect the course of the Second World War - his identity is a well guarded secret hidden behind the re-written history outright lies, which Cardboard Citizens lead us to debate.

Our Review:

Jo Caird - 29 June 2009

Cordy House, Shoreditch

Rarely does a show leave one genuinely speechless, but Mincemeat, Cardboard Citizens’ promenade production at Cordy House, does just that. Adrian Jackson and Farhana Sheikh’s play, set variously in 1909, 1943 and 2009, is a brilliant exposure of attitudes towards the most vulnerable members of our society, the deceit contained within myths of war and the slippery nature of memory.

In 1943 the body of a British soldier washes up on a beach in Spain. The documents in the briefcase found alongside it are intended to confuse the Germans as to the plans of the Allied powers. The Germans’ subsequent decision to divert troops away from Sicily to Sardinia was a major turning point in the war. It was said at the time that the military man whose body was put to such heroic use was a Major William Martin; this turned out to be merely a smokescreen however, and the true identity of the man re...

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Latest User Review

Gareth James - 22 June 2009:

This is a fascinating story and there's much to admire in Cardboard Citizens ambitious site specific production, which unfolds in six spaces in an atmospheric disused building in Shoreditch (close to the site of Shakespeare's Curtain Theatre). Based on the true story of a body used by British intelligence in the Second World war to confuse the German's over the allies' plans to land in Sicily, it moves from the ante-room to heaven through a mortuary to a homeless shelter, speculating that the body in question was a homeless Welshman. It's a complex structure and you have to put in a bit of work yourself (and I'm not convinced I worked enough). I loved the investigative style of the piece, but if they cut the opening two (irrelevant) scenes and dumped the interval (which interferes with the dramatic flow) they'd have an even better work....

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