Operation Crucible

Overview

Produced by:: McGill Productions LTD, from Group Up Theatre, and The Hartshorn-Hook Foundation
Dates:: May 08 - June 03, 2018
Run Time:: 0 Hour, 0 Minute
Intermission:: No
Theater:: Showing in Theater

Show Info

By Kieran Knowles
Directed by Bryony Shanahan

With Salvatore D'Aquila, Kieran Knowles, Christopher McCurry, and James Wallwork

"Sheffield was on fire. It was glowing orange, like hell, like a furnace, like steel."

On December 12, 1940, during World War II, a single bomb reduced the Marples Hotel, which stood proudly in Fitzalan Square in Sheffield, from seven stories to just 15 feet of rubble. Only one of the ten compartments in the hotel's cellars withstood the blast. Trapped within it were four men.

This is their story, from beginning to end...

Salvatore

D'Aquila

Kieran

Knowles

Christopher

McCurry

James

Wallwork

Photo Caption: Salvatore D'Aquila, Kieran Knowles, Christopher McCurry, and James Wallwork
Photo: Mark Douet

Click Here to view photos of the Operation Crucible set.

Producing Company

From Ground Up Theatre Company

From first stages to big stages. From Ground Up Theatre Company produces collaborative new work by assembling an artistic team from the very beginning,
discussing projects at every stage of development, and providing workshopping opportunities throughout the journey from page to stage.

The company formed in 2013 with its debut production of Operation Crucible performed in the new writing slot at the Finborough Theatre. The play subsequently went on a UK tour and ran for three sold out weeks at the Crucible Theatre. Their second production, 31 Hours, premiered at the Bunker Theatre in London. The play tackled mental health issues in young men and was a Daily Telegraph critic’s choice, and it also received a spate of excellent notices.

In March, 2017, they started a project for recent unrepresented graduates from UK drama schools called (RE)PRESENTED which offered free rehearsal practice and feedback to all applicants and the opportunity to develop a new play as a showcase for five actors to restart their careers. The first play from this process, Comet, premiered in February, 2018 at the Pleasance Theatre in Islington.

Reviews

"A smashing first play by kieran knowles... a cast of exactly four, on a near naked stage, managed to summon the enormity of the sheffield blitz." - Ben Brantley, The New York Times, Critic's Pick

"Gorgeously poetic...these men and their stories stay with you." - The Stage