It’d be easy to duck and cover from the audio-visual onslaught that is “Black Watch” — but the ten talented actors in the troupe just won’t let you.
They’re right in front of you, sharing the stage of Memorial Hall with the audience and making the dynamic power of the performance all the more direct.
This uncomfortable, sweaty proximity — the 240 seats for the performance are arranged bleacher-style on either side of the stage — is one of the highlights of the 110 minute tour de force presented this weekend by the National Theatre of Scotland.
But “Black Watch” would be a master work even from the regular 1400 seats of Memorial Hall. The script, the actors and the creative visual effects catapult the simple story of a troupe of Scottish soldiers fighting in Iraq into the stuff of contemporary cultural legend.
The Black Watch, Scotland’s oldest and most decorated fighting brigade, stirred up a media frenzy in the U.K. in 2004 after being deployed to Operation Iraqi Freedom against the will of the British electorate. Six of its troops were killed in ambush by Iraqi suicide bombers, leading the British public to open a public debate on the role of their country in a politically sticky conflict launched by the United States.
“Black Watch,” the play, tells that story through a collection of interviews with troops who served during in the early 2000s. At times, the work feels like “The Laramie Project” — the dramatic researcher is a character himself, and actors play a variety of characters as the action shifts from the battlefield to a Scottish pool hall and back again.
It’s hard to pick up the exact narrative thread of the piece, but it takes the experiences and trauma of a single group of proud, war ready soldiers and successfully probes at questions of morality and conflict resolution without being overly political.
“We’re here for porn and petrol,” says a Scottish officer, played by Scott Fletcher, when a young soldier inquires why the Black Watch is tramping around in the Iraqi desert.
Yet as the play continues, that flippant certainty becomes less clear as the war heightens and the men of the watch realize they are engaged in a conflict for which they were not properly trained and that is ultimately without a discernible end.
The production is sometimes clogged by its reliance on elaborate visual imagery — though the journey through the history of the Black Watch through high-flying period appropriate costume changes is mesmerizing — and a peculiar tendency towards song to tell a story.
The writing is strong and the actors talented, and one must wonder what the performance would look like in a similarly constrained space without all the boom and flash of the production staff.
The audience can’t help but feel like Paul Higgins’ quiet researcher as he interviews the angry soldiers of the watch. It’s an awkward spectacle, and there isn’t an intermission in which to process the painful tales brought to life.
It’s a real life journey to war, and there are no easy answers.
Four out of five stars
“Black Watch” is presented at Memorial Hall as a part of the Carolina Performing Arts Series’ International Theater Festival. Tickets are sold out, but more may be available after press time. See www.carolinaperformingarts.org for more information.
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