Posh people can get away with anything. It’s a depressing fact we’ve seen play out many times in modern-day politics – but it long predates the age of not-really-an-apology apologies. Back in the mid-20th century, Operation Mincemeat – a little-known, ethically dubious plan to help the allied forces win the Second World War – was one such example. MI6 would illegally obtain the corpse of an unknown homeless man, dress him up as a Royal Marine, and float him out to sea, where his body would be assumed to have come from a plane crash. To make the lie all the more realistic, they created a whole personality for the man, doctoring documents to place on his body along with faked files suggesting that Britain was really looking to invade Sardinia – not Sicily. It’s a plot so ludicrous that it couldn’t be made up – even for the theatre.
Transforming the true story into an award-winning historical comedy musical (an unconnected film starring Colin Firth is coming later this year) are theatre company SpitLip, with a show best described as a staggeringly high-energy explosion. We have rapping Nazis with glittery Swastika armbands; feminist anthems with “Single Ladies” dance moves; and, erm, James Bond author Ian Fleming. It has all the subtlety of an M4 Sherman tank, crashing its way from one sketch to the next – and is all the better for it.
