5 STARS, Feb 27-Mar 3. A highly original production about the weather, and how one man's forecast decided the outcome of D-Day
James Stagg has just arrived at an empty London office, a few doors down from the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in Europe. A taciturn Scot, Group Captain Stagg is soon demanding telephones, barometric instruments and weather charts.
Stagg is a meteorologist and General Eisenhower wants him as close as possible in the few days leading up to 5th June, 1944, the planned date for D-Day. The prevailing weather conditions will be critical for the hundreds of thousands of people taking part in the invasion, by sea and in the air.
David Haig, writer and star of 'Pressure', has described the play as 'a thriller about the weather.' Because as the scheduled date approaches, Stagg has a very different outlook from Colonel Irving Crick, the respected American meteorologist who has already saved thousands of lives through his accurate weather predictions for earlier US campaigns.
Relying on historical precedents to forecast the current weather pattern across the Channel, Crick believes that a high pressure system moving up from the Azores will overcome several violent storms being formed by low pressure zones further north. With sun streaming in through the office windows, a heat wave outside and not a cloud in sight, he believes Eisenhower should stick with 5th June for the invasion.
'But you haven't taken account of the upper air. The jet stream', shouts an impassioned Stagg. 'You don't know northern European weather like I do.' He urges Ike to postpone the invasion.
If D-Day goes ahead as planned and the storms predicted by Stagg arrive, as many as 80,000 lives could be lost without ever landing on a beach, and the invasion would fail, putting the future of Europe and the UK at risk. But with perfect summer weather still outside the office window, is that really likely?
Ike alone is responsible for making the final decision....
'Pressure' is perfectly paced and acted, delivering a powerful and unexpectedly emotional punch, with perceptive witty spells brightening the approaching storm clouds.
David Haig is outstanding as Stagg, amassing as much information as possible from the data available to him and sticking to his meteorological guns, even as his wife's life is at risk from giving birth to their second child.
Malcolm Sinclair plays Eisenhower with a well-judged balance of authority and compassion, profanities littering his pronouncements as he juggles the dissenting forecasters' views....and tries to understand the rules of rugby.
And the role of Kay Summersby, played by Laura Rogers, is cleverly developed as the Pressure mounts. Having been a key member of Ike's 'wartime family' for the last few years - as driver, secretary, mechanic and 'general factotum' - it becomes clear that she does more than respect him. And despite a tetchy immediate relationship with Stagg, Summersby helps him when he most needs support and they form a deep mutual respect.
Director John Dove and the rest of the accomplished cast combine to deliver a highly original production, layered with themes beyond the main D-Day story. And on a stage with Stagg's makeshift office as the only fixed set design, tribute must also be paid to the sound and lighting teams. We are transported to those desperate days of June 1944, the noise of birdsong, marching soldiers and solitary airplanes drifting through the window on perfect cloudless days before Stagg's predicted weather patterns finally arrive.
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