Location: Jewish Community Center, Mainstage, 333 South 132nd Street, 68154

  

"One of the BEST shows I've seen in Omaha in quite some time! Go see this show!"

(Gordon Cantiello, PART) 

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"Daniel Dorner, Eric Grant Leanna, Eddie McGonigal and Daniel Sukup turn in great ensemble work. This is one of those stories that can be told with little visual flash -- four wooden chairs and two benches are the set -- and still knock your socks off."

(Bob Fischbach, OWH's recently retired, longtime theatre reviewer)

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"Lara Marsh has constructed a powerhouse show...Be prepared for a most unique night of theatre as Knowles’ script completely rewrites the rules of the game. It starts at a fever pitch and keeps you holding on for dear life until the bitter end."

(Chris Elston, Chris' Corner)

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"Brigit’s devotion to classics and Irish drama is honored here, not with an established work, but one that lives up to the quality expected from a selection by founding artistic director Cathy Kurz. Thanks to director Lara Marsh and four players of the Brigit Saint Brigit company, the 80-minute play by Kieran Knowles is a compelling experience, rich with insight into coping under the most challenging conditions."

(Warren Francke, The Omaha Reader)

           

This thrilling new play, written by Kieran Knowles, tells the story of "four ordinary men in extraordinary times":  steel workers in Britain's Sheffield munitions factory. "It centers on 12 December 1940, when the city suffered seven hours of continuous bombing."  We get to know the young men at work, at rest, and ultimately trapped beneath the rubble of a bombed-out bldg.

 

            "Not a clear-cut, straight through narrative of the Sheffield blitz, the story reveals itself in a montage of the men’s experience as they create the steel mill atmosphere, the energy, the heat, the molten metal by their physical performance, express their fears, their love for family. While one speaks of his unpreparedness to fight, another remembers his father walking into the gunfire across the Great War’s no-man’s-land. . . The girl met at a dance, the hungry thirties, the pleasure in the rare taste of an orange, the football teams, the rivalry and the pride—they are all there as well as the panic buried in the dark . ..."

 

Past Productions

 

--Premiered in December, 2013, at the Finborough Theatre, the home company of the playwright, also an actor in the company.  This is the first play he's written.  The Finborough continues to tour this throughout the UK, and numerous other theatres in the UK have produced it. 

 

Critical Acclaim

 

"More hauntingly eloquent than the pyrotechnics of any big-budget war movie" (Ben Brantley, NYT).

 

" Miniature in scale, but operatic in effect . . . a very moving play" (Britishtheatreguide.com).

 

"Outstanding . . . A remarkable play that vividly evokes both the terror of wartime bombing and Sheffield's capacity for survival" (Michael Billington, The Guardian).

 

Background links

 

http://www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk/productions/2015/operation-crucible.php

 

http://britishtheatre.com/review-operation-crucible-finborough-theatre-4stars/

 

http://www.britishtheatreguide.info/reviews/operation-cruci-finborough-thea-9660

 

http://www.thereviewshub.com/operation-crucible-finborough-theatre-london/

 

Original Production YouTube promo: https://youtu.be/0s9PaX8uEEI

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Reviews

 

http://thereader.com/theater/operation-crucible/

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https://creatingcontemplation.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/this-operation-is-a-bittersweet-triumph/