Black Watch (4.5/5)
National Theatre of Scotland
Sydney Festival, Carriageworks, Sydney
16 January 2008
Good theatre, good soldiering - very believable, excellent dialogue; smart, sharp use of dance/movement/marching, sound and lighting to create tension on the minimalist set in its Tattoo configuration. Intelligent interwoven stories: the Black Watch – its history and impact on Scottish communities, the political blunders and human toll of Iraq. The F&C***’s wore a little thin and why not a real floor of solid, dusty concrete rather than weathertex. Well worth seeing, (despite Carriagework’s hard seats).
Poor old CarriageWorks cops it again...despite the fact that the seats were a Butlers Hire system installed by the Sydney Festival - and most of us are aware of the nightmare that was the seating system installed by the same contractor in 2007. In fact the hardness this time was a deliberate decision by the director to ensure that the mess hall brutality extended into the audience. Meanwhile the beautiful new - comfortable - system lies dormant & retracted against the north wall of the auditorium.
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