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What marked Black Watch out from the hundreds of Iraq-set pieces of verbatim theatre which have marked the stage this decade was its artistry and theatricality. Director John Tiffany’s production used choreography, traditional song and incidental music, and some quite stunning theatrical devices to express the squaddies’ lives in a piece of art.
‘Originally, we thought it was going to be a piece of verbatim theatre,’ remembers Burke. ‘[But] I had to wait to actually talk to them after they’d served in Camp Dogwood, and I already had a second, fictional script based on what I’d been reading about Iraq, and in the end, combining the two, the play became a fictional telling of a real incident.’ Where Trainspotting, set in the 1980s, was a look back, Black Watch engages immediately with the international event which
continues to cast the biggest shadow over the decade, but filters it through the lens of a local, Scottish, community. One of the only criticisms levelled at the play was that it glorified a right-wing outlook.
‘For me, it wasn’t about politics at all,’ says Burke. ‘Critics can say, “Oh, this was right-wing” – well, most of the guys I was speaking to, most soldiers are quite right-wing. I wasn’t sticking up for anything, I just wanted to talk about warfare and the soldiers that do it. That was all we wanted to do.’
What we said then . . . ‘What is most gratifying of all is to see the representation of a community living within its history, rather than the usual ideologically inspired denial of history . . . A splendid, rambunctiously humorous, moving and insightful affair.’ ●●●●● The List, 10 Aug 2006
2007
OCTOBER JANUARY
APRIL
JUNE
Andrea Arnold’s Glasgow-set film Red
James McAvoy stars in Kevin
Road is released, Macdonald’s The
winning the Jury Prize Last King Of
at the Cannes Film Festival. Arnold’s second film, Fish
Tank, does the same in 2009. ‘Absolutely stunning’ – The List, 10 Oct, 2006.
Scotland, about the brutal regime of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin. McAvoy goes on to star in Atonement and
Wanted.
A. L. Kennedy’s Day is published. It wins the Costa Book Of The Year award and, the following year, the Austrian State Prize For European
Literature.
Glasgow Airport is
the subject of a terrorist attack. Baggage handler John Smeaton is regarded as a
national hero after attacking one of the terrorists and helping another man to
safety.
3–17 Dec 2009 THE LIST 25