Black Watch

Synopsis

A theatrical investigation based on interviews conducted by Gregory Burke with former soldiers of the Black Watch who served in Iraq. Valued for the clan ties and bravery at its heart, the Black Watch has been in the vanguard of countless British military expeditions from Waterloo and the Somme to Kosovo. Its last great challenge before amalgamation was relieving American forces at Camp Dogwood in Iraq.

Our Review:

Paul Couch - 17 April 2013

Gregory Burke’s Black Watch isn’t easy viewing. The language in this tale of British soldiers during and after the Iraq war is naturalistic and appropriately robust. Its scenes are, by turns, funny and harrowing. Like the members of the eponymous regiment it portrays, Black Watch takes no prisoners and is obdurate in its shock and awe offensive on the senses of its audience.

But director John Tiffany and his 10-strong male cast present a solid and uncompromising piece of physically demanding theatre that will surely go down as one of the most polished and relevant works of our age.

Black Watch, one suggests, works best in unusual spaces, in this case staged traverse in the University of East Anglia's Haydn Morris Sports Hall, a return to the style of venue where it debuted in 2006 as part of the Edinburgh Festival. The acoustics in this particular venue are surprisingly effective – no mean feat for a space that usually houses basketball and 7...

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