| Superb and at times breath-taking |
Theatre of Scotland |
| National Theatre of Scotland- Black Watch , Ebbw Vale Leisure Centre , May 15, 2008 |
Eight squaddies and a couple of officers from Scotland’s Black Watch regiment dropped into Ebbw Vale Leisure Centre last night and for a couple of hours they held us entranced with their vivid tales of life in the raw in the war in Iraq. They relived for us some of their tragic experiences but their shared ribald conversation did not detract from their bravery or even the bewilderment of some of them at being there. Somehow in the vast space of the leisure centre the real horrors and futility of this and all wars hit us much more deeply than anything that the television news presents us with.Their accounts were all given in warm Scottish sounds that were so captivating and full of pride and rough charm. It was almost hard to believe that these guys weren’t the real thing but actors from the acclaimed National Theatre of Scotland giving us a gripping Brechtian account of Gregory Burke’s award winning play. The high roofed leisure centre seemed to make the perfect setting for the play. Seats, about four hundred of them very nearly all occupied, were set out on either side of the auditorium with the action taking place, traverse style, along the basket ball pitch between, the metal gantry set merging into the galvanised beams of the building. In anticipation of the eagerly awaited emergence of our own English Language, Welsh National Theatre it was a highly imaginative move on behalf of the Arts Council of Wales to bring this consummately professional example of this World Class company to Wales. It has been suggested the WNT be run on similar lines to the Scottish example. If it is able to produce work half as good as this production it will be a miraculous break through for theatre in Wales and whilst I have a passionate desire to see great theatre produced in Wales, I’m not putting any money on it - yet! NTS receives about £4.3 million a year. The WNT will get about £2 million. NTS has a ‘small’ staff of nearly forty people. Its artistic Director brings to it an entrepreneurial skill and an awareness of the needs of high quality theatre that has rarely been seen in Wales and we are still a long way off that. The WNT will have a lot of catching up to do. Artistic Director, Vicky Featherstone started bringing this play together shortly after her appointment in 2004, the company’s first production was in 2006. Her first move was to ask writer Gregory Burke to monitor the amalgamation of the Black Watch with the other Scottish regiments, no specific play was in mind at that time. Every word in the play was reported to the writer during his researches. An Associate Director of the company, John Tiffany has melded these words together with a fine ensemble of intelligent, sensitive and highly talented actors, with music and movement, with superb and at times breath-taking precision to give us an undoubted example of world class theatre that it was a privilege to watch. The show continues tonight and Saturday at 7.30pm. If you can’t catch it here it will be at The Barbican, London 20 June – 26 July. This is one not to miss! |
Reviewed by: Michael Kelligan |
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