new play celebrates Scots airman who saved many lives and played a significant part in the success of the liberation of France,
A must see No pressure
A tense historical drama celebrating the D-day intervention made by a forgotten Scottish hero is to transfer to the West End and a film version is being planned.
Pressure, written and performed by the actor David Haig, tells the story of Group Captain Dr James Stagg, whose accurate weather warning helped avert disaster. On the eve of D-day in June 1944, as Winston Churchill and General Eisenhower drew up final plans for the allied landings on the continent, Stagg correctly interpreted new meteorological evidence about the influence of the jet stream on weather in the Channel.
Against all the advice provided by Eisenhower’s advisers, Stagg urged that Operation Overlord be postponed.
“He could see there was a huge storm brewing over the Atlantic,” Haig, who plays Stagg, says. “He was the tenacious, dour Scot who ran the Allied Meteorological Unit, and he stood his ground and showed real integrity. His advice saved Europe and probably something like 80,000 lives.”
Stagg’s ultimate triumph, however, was in persuading Eisenhower there would be a good chance of making the crossings successfully the following day, 6 June. “Stagg could see that the storm had slowed down and so there would be an eight-hour window that the allies could use,” says Haig, who also wrote the acclaimed play about Rudyard Kipling, My Boy Jack.
“None of the Germans or Americans could see it. They were way behind the game as far as meteorology was concerned.”
The play, which was originally commissioned by Edinburgh’s Royal Lyceum Theatre, has completed a national tour and finishes a sellout run at the Park Theatre in Finsbury, north London, on 28 April.
The action begins 72 hours ahead of the planned landings. The American expert Irving P Krick – Hollywood’s meteorological movie consultant – has predicted fine weather, but it is Stagg’s job to persuade the general to hold back.
“Stagg understood the jet stream much better, although its influence was just being recognised,” says Haig. “The US was just using charts based on what the weather had done on previous occasions.”
The Olivier award-winning actor is joined on stage by Malcolm Sinclair as Eisenhower and Laura Rogers as Kay Summersby, a member of the British Mechanised Transport Corps who served as the American general’s chauffeur and personal secretary.
Haig said he had little interest in forecasting before he came across this crucial episode in the defeat of Hitler. “The truth is that on this island our understanding of the weather is very different to the way that people think about it in America.
The volatility of British conditions famously makes it much more interesting to us, and it will always be there to be commented upon in conversation.”
Haig has been asked to adapt the play for the screen, but says he must find a way to preserve the tension of a story told on a small stage about the enormously high stakes of a decision taken “inside one small room”.
“It is a brilliantly compres
sed bit of history and I hope that comes across in the play. I am finding ways to expand it without losing that,” he says.
The play transfers to the Ambassadors Theatre in the West End on the anniversary of D-day.
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