PERFORMANCE REVIEW: Mincemeat

Mincemeat - Cardboard Citizens
Cordy House, Shoreditch

After watching Cardboard Citizens' latest production Mincemeat, I cannot help but feel that I have done a good deed by simply turning up to see a show.

Set in Cordy House, a disused building on Curtain Road in trend-setting Shoreditch, Mincemeat is a promenade performance based upon a series of reconstructions and fictionalized characters and stories surrounding Operation Mincemeat, which took place during the Second World War. The British Intelligence’s successful deception plan was depicted in Ewen Montagu’s 1953 book The Man Who Never Was and then subsequently made into a film of the same title.

The show commences with a false start of sorts, as a van filled with kidnappers is driven into the warehouse’s ground floor space from the street. The audience is then led to a different room where the story is introduced. From there, the actors shift among characters and the audience is taken to imagined spaces within the building where the intelligent use of interior architecture depict various scenes. Sometimes the audience are allowed to sit and seamlessly become part of the setting, while in other rooms the audience are the invisible onlookers witnessing the events, following the main character as he uncovers his true identity. The play’s close takes us back to the room in which we began, but by now it has been converted into a wartime shelter complete with bunker beds allowing audience and performers merge. Overall the production is cleverly executed, without tailor made costumes but also without excessive scenery.

The feel good factor comes from the fact that, rather than seeing a show with potentially like-minded theatre-goers, the audience represents a beautiful slice of Londoners from all walks of life. Needless to say, the ensemble itself comprises a wide range of real life characters and however superficial this observation may be, the energy of a true and engaging social theatre is definitely in the air.

If you are not sure about seeing a show supported by The Big Issue, then hopefully Kate Winslet - the company's new ambassador - will encourage you. Go see it.

Ingrid Hu

Mincemeat runs until 12th July