Seven years after its hugely successful premiere,
the National Theatre of Scotland’s Black
Watch returned to the SECC last week. Gregory Burke’s immense production
remains just as powerful to Scottish audiences, most of whom will have heard of
the show by now but may not be quite as prepared for its poignant glory.
Directed by John Tiffany, Black Watch opened at the Edinburgh Fringe in 2006, where it won an
array of awards: Scotsman Fringe First, the Critics Circle Award, a Herald
Angel and the South Bank Show Award for Theatre. During its world tour, the
production won the Laurence Oliver Award for Best New Play and the New York
Drama Critics’ Circle Award for Best Foreign Play.
Based on Burke’s interviews with former soldiers, Black Watch is told as a series of
flashbacks through the eyes of disillusioned Scottish soldiers to an investigative
journalist who wants to know “what it was like…for the soldiers. On the ground.”
The journalist’s naivety reflects the general public’s inability to understand
the reality of Iraq. At one point when he asks a soldier suffering from
depression about his experience, the man threatens to break his arm because “If
he wants tay ken about Iraq, he has tay feel some pain.” From the voice over at
the outset of the play, Burke defamiliarises the audience from a stereotypical
war production: “Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the unique
setting of the SECC…”
The script and delivery are powerful in their own
way but the dialogue is accompanied with an unexpected sense of movement, drill
and music. With a backdrop of diverse music from Cliff Martine, Yann Tiersen,
The Gallant 42 and Snow Patrol to original music from Max Richter and Davey
Anderson as well as the emotive Lament the Flouers o the Forest, we are taken
from a pub in Fife to the battlefield in Iraq. Part of the enormous power of Black Watch is its use of movement: when
the soldiers receive letters from home, they are never read out to the audience
but they don’t need to be; the delicate hand gestures carried out by the cast
demonstrate the emotions of the soldiers more than words ever could. Phenomenal among the
wonderful cast in this technically brilliant production are Stuart Martin
(Cammy), Andrew Fraser (Fraz), Daniel Portman (Kenzie), Richard Rankin
(Granty), and Gavin Jon Wright (Nabsy).
Black Watch reveals what it means to be part of the legendary Scottish regiment, what it means to be part of the war of terror and what it means to survive the journey home. Despite displaying anti-war sentiments throughout, the production conveys a deep respect for the Black Watch tradition and its legacy.
