OPERATION CRUCIBLE

By Kieran Knowles

Directed by Bryony Shanahan

With Salvatore D'Aquila, Kieran Knowles, Christopher McCurry, and James Wallwork

"Sheffield was on fire. It was glowing orange, like hell, like a furnace, like steel."

On the December 12, 1940, during World War II, a single bomb reduced the Marples Hotel, which stood proudly in Fitzalan Square in Sheffield, from seven stories to just 15 feet of rubble. Only one of the ten compartments in the hotel's cellars withstood the blast. Trapped within it were four men.

This is their story, from beginning to end...

"A SMASHING FIRST PLAY BY KIERAN KNOWLES... A CAST OF EXACTLY FOUR, ON A NEAR NAKED STAGE, MANAGED TO SUMMON THE ENORMITY OF THE SHEFFIELD BLITZ."
- Ben Brantley, The New York Times

★★★★ "GORGEOUSLY POETIC...THESE MEN AND THEIR STORIES STAY WITH YOU."
- The Stage