Mincemeat at Cordy House

Mincemeat at Cordy House

24 June, 2009
by: Katuschka

As a favour to a university friend studying drama, I once attended a class at Cardboard Citizens, whose troupe consists of homeless and displaced people.  Although they didn't seem to find my portrayal of a photographer hiding behind a grave very believable (they thought I was looking in a mirror and brushing my hair) and Hackney's infamous Moleman kept calling my friend 'Sexy Steph'; my lasting impression was of a project which did exactly what it promised, getting people off the streets and turning many of them into confident individuals at the least, if not great actors.

Their production of Adrian Jackson and Farhana Sheikh's gritty adaptation of The Man Who Never Was – Mincemeat at Cordy House – only reinforced these views.  The subject matter is rather apt; the main character is a homeless man whose body was used as a decoy for Nazi troops, surreptitiously placed in Spanish waters with a briefcase containing supposedly inflammatory documents.  A stroke of genius starts the play with the anonymous man arriving in Heaven and being ordered to 'Know thy self'.  From the personal effects on his body he ascertains that he was an officer of high rank, possibly a spy, whose heroic deeds changed the course of the war saving thousands of lives.  These illusions are shattered one by one as he is taken through the events leading up to his heroic deed by a heavenly clerk, somewhat like It's a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Carol rolled together in wartime Britain, only less wonderful and less Christmassy.  

Mincemeat is set in an atmospheric warehouse space in Shoreditch, which is still graffitied from the recent Mutate Britain exhibition.  The use of graphics and multimedia give the play an otherworldly texture, phones ring in the dark and answer themselves, balloons and video loops emerge from dry ice, vans crash through hidden doors and in a room where the dead man's military coffin is the only prop (the marines carrying it were told it was a new torpedo) a video interview of a man actually involved in the operation plays, giving soberly realistic tinge to the production.

The ethical arguments the play raises, regarding the sanctity of life even in light of saving further lives, and the worth of a displaced person, are framed poignantly and eloquently within the hustle of secret operations by a stirringly sensitive Ifan Meredith as the anonymous man. He quietly drifts through the unravelling of his 'life' until he realises that every accolade was not his own, and that he was considered worthless enough to be used as bait.  A sombre subject perhaps, but articulated with just the right balance of gravitas and light relief in the form of various Hitler impressions. The production is further enriched by its chaotic dream-like movement throughout the performance space.  Much like An Inspector Calls, this play asks the audience to suspend their preconceptions regarding homelessness and to review their social conscience; and despite the fact that you aren't part of a faceless government cover up, you may find yourself buying a Big Issue on the way home.      

Mincemeat runs until 12 July at Cordy House

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Katuschka