Operation Market Garden: Fantastic piece of theatre delivered by young people showing maturity in performance, paying homage to a lost generation (Fringe review) 4 Stars ****

Operation Market Garden is the Second World War story of the 1944 Arnhem drop that inspired the film, A Bridge Too Far. This is the account from a diary that Neville Neads, a paratrooper, kept during the drop and the subsequent capture of him and his comrades. Dropped into enemy territory, the British soldiers are unable to hold the bridge, are captured by the Nazis and are regularly moved, from one camp to another until liberation by American soldiers. 

Verbatim theatre is at its best when it has a strong voice that not only was present but delivers strong emotions. The structure of Neville telling his own tale, dramatized by his great granddaughter, Izzy Lane, great who is part of the show, has both. The loss of comrades in the heat of war is well imagined and delivered with sensitivity by a young cast. The irony may be that they are not that much younger than the people who were part of the drop, have none of the horrendous experiences of war but capture the enthusiasm, excitement, starvation and eventual boredom of survival so well. 

Inspired’s cast goes at this with gusto, though at times it’s a little jolly-hockey-sticks and 1940’s Pathe News reel, but nonetheless it does capture a moment of time. 

It was also nice to hear that Welsh lilt. Having some of the monologue, however, delivered in darkness didn’t really help the narrative in a way that I think they were looking for. The costumes were brilliant.

Operation Market Garden is a fantastic piece of theatre delivered by young people who showed a maturity in performance, paying homage to a lost generation who we acknowledge for a couple of minutes in November, but who have given us the rest of our lives in freedom. 

It is a moment in time where youth was tested and found less than wanting, perhaps that’s the message Neville Neads has inspired here. 

Operation Market Garden was at Space in Surgeon’s Hall until 29th  August

Review date: Friday 28^th August 2026