Bombing campaign played out in Sheffield

The story of Operation Crucible begins like so many stories I’ve heard from actors.

It finishes a little differently than most.

It begins with a group of actors finishing drama school and sitting in a pub, wondering what to do with their futures.

Kieran Knowles, one of the actors, picks up the story.

“There were four of us, we’d all been to the same drama school and we met in a pub in London and decided that rather than waiting for the phone to ring, 
we’d actually do something,” he says.

So far, so usual. Lots of actors, lubricated in a pub, discuss how to change their lot. Actors are essentially at the mercy of directors, writers and agents: it’s why this conversation happens often. Knowles’s story gets a little unusual from here.

“We walked away from the meeting and the usual thing that happens is that the energy sags. You say ‘we should definitely make something so we can work together’ and then nothing happens.

“That’s not what happened this time. Instead one of the lads started sending us homework, little scenes to write and character work we were supposed to do, so we started doing it and started meeting up regularly.

“We realised we wanted to tell a story of the North. We’re all Northerners living in London, I’m from Manchester and the other three are from Sheffield.

“We started thinking of stories we could tell and we started thinking about Sheffield and the industrial side of the North and we realised there had never been a real celebration of it.

“There have been lots of stories about it, but they all seem to about when it died off. The Full Monty and Brassed Off are the obvious examples that are about the industry and North, but they’re about the loss of community when all that died off.

“That was when we found the story of the Marples Hotel.”

It’s easy to understand why Knowles was looking for a story to tell.

Even if you are not in the theatre industry, most of us know that most actors are out of work more often than they are in gainful employment. The cliche of the resting actor working waiting tables is a cliche because it’s true.

The fact that he and his fellow actors found a story that has had a resonance is to be celebrated not just for them as actors, but for the tale they decided to tell.

The story of the Marples Hotel is the story of the Sheffield Blitz. On the nights of December 14 and 15, 1940, German planes bombed the Steel City in an operation called Schmelztiegel, which translates as Crucible.

The planes laid waste to the city and the Marples Hotel, which stood on the corner of Fitzalan Square and High Street.

It was thought there were no survivors, but after two days, seven men emerged from the rubble, having taken refuge in the hotel’s cellar.

It was obvious to Knowles and his fellow actors what the story would be. They would tell the story of four of the men trapped in that cellar.

“We all came up with the story together and worked on character and that kind of thing and then I went away and put it all down into a coherent narrative,” says Knowles, who is credited as writer of the resulting play, Operation Crucible.

The play is coming to Sheffield Studio September 7 to 24, and not before time.

While it might seem obvious that the story is one that should be told and should be told on a Sheffield stage, that’s not really how the industry works. When Knowles and his fellow actors began working together on the story, it was 2013.

“We got a slot at a theatre in London called The Finborough, but just a little space to show a part of the play. From there we got a small tour of the UK and played at places like Hull Truck and a couple down south, but then we were invited back to The Finborough last year for a slot in the main theatre in August. That was when we got all the press in and it went a bit mad,” says Knowles.

Indeed. The play attracted great praise and national press coverage.

Knowles says: “Something popped up on my Facebook yesterday to remind me that it was a year ago we were reviewed in the Guardian, but that’s not all. I’d just had a baby and I went from being an out- of-work actor with no real prospects to having a four star review in the Guardian. At the time I remember thinking ‘finally, my gran can start showing off about me’.”

When the play comes to Sheffield Studio it will star the same cast who originated the idea, save for one member who has landed a job on a national tour with another company.

“We’ve all kind of been on a bit of a rollercoaster with it since 2013 and it feels like it dies off for a bit, and then the whole thing picks a load of momentum again.

“This feels like we’re on our third bout of momentum, but bringing the show to Sheffield does feel like the most significant thing we’ve done with this play yet,” says Knowles.

“The weirdest thing is that it started off as a bunch of actors trying to be a little bit proactive and now we’re playing at the Crucible theatre. It’s actually pretty insane when I start to think about it.”

Operation Crucible is at the Sheffield Studio, September 7 to 24. Tickets from the box office on 0114 249600 or online at www.sheffieldtheatres.co.uk

On December 12, 1940, 
the German Luftwaffe 
began Operation Crucible, 
a bombing campaign of Sheffield.

The aim was to destroy the heartland of Britain’s munitions manufacturing.

The attack, which continued for several days, left Sheffield in ruins. The Marples Hotel itself was hit by a 500kg bomb which destroyed the seven story building, rendering it to 15ft of rubble.

One of the hotel’s ten compartments withstood the blast, trapping seven men. All seven were rescued two days later.