OPERATION CRUCIBLE Set for Sheffield Theatres

Folie à deux Productions and From Ground Up Theatre Company in association with Sheffield Theatres today announce the full cast for Kieran Knowles' Operation Crucible. Bryony Shanahan directs Salvatore D'Aquilla, Kieran Knowles, Paul Tinto and James Wallwork. The production opens on 8 September, with previews from 6 September, and runs until 24 September. Following performances at Sheffield, the productions tours to Oxford Playhouse; Maltings Farnham; Phoenix Arts Centre, Bordon; Library Theatre, Leighton Buzzard; Old Town Hall Arts Centre, Hemel Hempstead; Quarry Theatre, Bedford; Cornerstone, Didcot; Artsdepot; The Hat Factory, Luton; Norwich Playhouse; The Woodville, Gravesend; Arts Centre, Hounslow; Theatre Royal, Margate; and The Cryer, Sutton.

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

Set against the backdrop of the Sheffield Blitz, Operation Crucible is the story of four ordinary men in extraordinary times...

On the 12 December 1940 a single bomb reduced the Marples Hotel, which stood proudly in Fitzalan Square, from seven storeys to just 15 feet of rubble. Only one of the ten compartments in the hotel's cellars withstood the blast. Within it, trapped, were four men.

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

Kieran Knowles, was nominated for Most Promising New Playwright for his first play, Operation Crucible, he is a graduate of Loughborough University, LAMDA and the Royal Court Young Writer's Programme. As an actor his work includes Toast (UK tour and New York), Operation Crucible (Finborough Theatre and UK tour), The Bear, The Owl and The Angel (New Wimbledon Studio), The Winter's Tale, The Taming of the Shrew (RSC), The Witches' Promise (Birmingham REP), Waiting For Lefty (Theatre Royal Haymarket), Darkness (Lakeside Theatre, Colchester, and Edinburgh) and The Exclusion Zone (Southwark Playhouse).

Salvatore D'Aquilla's theatre work includes Comet (Redbridge Drama Centre), Operation Crucible (Finborough Theatre), War Horse (National Theatre/West End), The Way of The World (Chichester Festival Theatre), and Still Life (Old Red Lion Theatre).

Paul Tinto's theatre credits include Operation Crucible (Finborough Theatre), In Time O' Strife, international tour of Black Watch (National Theatre of Scotland), Chariots of Fire (Hampstead Theatre/West End), The Odyssey (National Theatre), Claustrophobia, Release (Edinburgh Fringe Festival). For television, his work includes First Light and Outlander; and for film, Tommy's Honour.

James Wallwork's theatre credits include Operation Crucible (Finborough Theatre), My Beautiful Laundrette (ATS Theatre) Darkness (Lakeside Theatre, Colchester and Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and Last Man Standing (Nursery Theatre). For film, his work includes A Thousand Empty Glasses, V.P. and Nightstand. Wallwork is also a Director and co-founded the award-winning film company Take Cover Films in 2011.

Director Bryony Shanahan is Co-Artistic Director of Snuff Box Theatre. Directing credits include Boys Will Be Boys (National Theatre), Bitch Boxer (Soho Theatre, UK tour and Adelaide Fringe Festival), Quiet Violence (Camden Roundhouse), Macbeth (East 15 Acting School), Chapel Street (national tour), You and Me (Greenwich Theatre and national tour), The Altitude Brothers (national tour), Doctor Faustus (St Mary Magdelene Church, Paddington) and Babies (Southwark Playhouse). In 2014, she won a BBC Performing Arts Award to work at the Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, where she assisted on Sarah Frankcom's Hamlet with Maxine Peake, as well as developing new Snuff Box piece Weald. She returned to the Royal Exchange Theatre in 2015 as Associate Director on The Skriker as part of the Manchester International Theatre Festival.

Shanahan was also awarded the 2016 Young Vic Genesis Future Directors Award.

First performed at the Finborough Theatre, London under Neil McPherson, Artistic Director.

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