Operation Crucible, Finborough, review: Not quite enough to shout about

An excess of undifferentiated bellowing pulls crucial focus from the narrative at key moments, says Fiona Mountford
Making a noise: Salvatore D’Aquilla, Paul Tinto, Kieran Knowles and Joshua Mayes-Cooper as the friends in peril (Picture: Max Lacombe-Shaw)
Max Lacombe-Shaw
Fiona Mountford31 July 2015

In the theatre, as in life, a little well-timed shouting can make a big impact. A lot of shouting, however, swiftly plays to diminishing returns and so it proves, frustratingly, in this promising new work from debut playwright Kieran Knowles. An excess of undifferentiated bellowing — an assault on the eardrums in the Finborough’s small space — bedevils Bryony Shanahan’s try-too-hard production, pulling crucial focus from the narrative at key moments. When Shanahan allows the play to take a deep, calm breath and trust in Knowles’s words, as during the hugely affecting ending, it’s far more satisfying.

We’re in Sheffield on December 12, 1940, the day when more than 600 people lost their lives to Germany’s Operation Crucible, designed to obliterate the steel works which were so crucial to the British war effort. We follow four steelworkers through this life-changing day which starts, as most life-changing days tend to, like any other. Hence much jovial banter and genial ribbing between the men, as well as a compelling evocation of hard physical labour.

If these men are going to be in peril, we need to care about them as individuals, which here entails some rather cursory cuts to their personal lives. Not all of the quartet are sufficiently fleshed out and these continuing cutaways work even less well when the men find themselves trapped underground. Way more convincing is the amusing banter, which continues even in extremis, between supporters of Sheffield’s two rival football teams.

Knowles himself plays affable Tommy, the backbone of the group, and Salvatore D’Aquilla has fun as gullible junior Bob. It’s a story that’s well worth hearing — when you can.

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1/50

Until August 22 (0844 847 1652, finboroughtheatre.co.uk)

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