Two years have passed since Gregory Burke’s play Black Watch debuted at the Edinburgh Festival in summer 2006. Public opinions on the war against Iraq are by now firmly formed. Burke has made a loud and clear statement on his view on the war. What pushes the play beyond a didactic commentary is Burke’s ability to experience the life of the Scottish soldiers in Iraq. The songs, the tears, the fights, the blood, the swearing and the sweat make it impossible to see the war as some far away, virtual reality on television.
The scenes are vignettes of different facets of these soldiers’ experiences in Iraq. Director John Tiffany has brought Burke’s words to live by packing the stage with action, music and sound. In Toronto, the production was presented in an indoor stadium where the audiences sat on both sides of a narrow and long stage floor. This setting gave the play a natural barrack feel. One could almost smell the gunpowder every time an explosion went off.
Through the bantering among the soldiers, the image-hungry journalist interview and the naive researcher’s discussion, the audience shares these young lads’ friendship, sense of purpose disintegrated to sense of boredom and above all their vulnerability. There’s one particularly touching scene when the soldiers read their letters from home and begin to use sign language to tell their story, a poignant reminder of the lives they have left behind for a war they no longer believe in.
History sadly often repeats itself. Only 80 years ago, RC Sherriff wrote Journey’s End to recall the horror of WWI in the trenches. Today, we have Black Watch.
