Operation Crucible
Kieran Knowles’s debut play, about four steelworkers who are trapped in a bombed hotel during the blitz, is Sheffield to the core. Curiously, the play wasn’t first produced in the steel city but in the heart of Chelsea, where the Finborough theatre took a punt on a piece that a little-known actor-playwright had written for himself and three colleagues to perform.
That impressive away win has now been rewarded with a home leg for a play whose characters are united in all but footballing loyalties. The city’s two teams are among the subjects of the high-spirited discussions in Knowles’s brisk, strenuously physical depiction of male camaraderie.
-Alfred Hickling, Guardian, 10th September 2016.
Cast & Crew
Cast
| Arthur | James Wallwork |
|---|---|
| Bob | Salvatore D’Aquilla |
| Phil | Paul Tinto |
| Tommy | Kieran Knowles |
Crew | |
| Designer | Sophia Simensky |
| Director | Bryony Shanahan |
| Lighting Designer | Seth Rook Williams |
| Sound Designer | Daniel Foxsmith |
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Play description
The story of four steelworkers caught up in the Sheffield Blitz on the night a single bomb reduced the Marples Hotel in Fitzalan Square from seven storeys to just fifteen feet of rubble. The play had two runs at the Finborough and subsequently transferred to the Crucible Studio.
Operation Crucible has played two runs off Broadway and been adapted for BBC Radio Four in July 2018, directed by Toby Swift.
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