Acclaimed play puts audience at center of intense world of Scottish regiment in Iraq

Boredom, bombs and back to boredom.

That was the life of the men in the legendary Scottish regiment Black Watch when they were deployed to Iraq in 2004 to relieve American Marines.

But there was more to that life. There was camaraderie, bravery, humor and terror.

Interviews with former soldiers of the regiment brought playwright Gregory Burke to craft "Black Watch," a story that bounces back and forth from a Scottish pub to sweltering scenes in the war zone.

"The play is pro-soldier," Burke said last week from Edinburgh, Scotland. "They are the story. It's about them and their experiences both at home afterwards and in Iraq."

The drama premiered to rave reviews at the 2006 Edinburgh Festival and continued to receive high praise at theaters in London, New York, Los Angeles and Perth, Australia. Now the National Theatre of Scotland invades Norfolk's Scope to wrap up this year's Virginia Arts Festival.

Its intense subject matter is accentuated with music, strobe lights, tight choreography and video; the production is out to capture the audience and draw it into the experience. Expect bagpipes, drums, regimental marching songs and salty barracks banter. So be forewarned: There are bombs and "f-bombs." It is not recommended for children under 16.

"I think it strikes a nerve with people," Burke, 39, said. "It is a simple story about a group of young men who could be anybody's sons and brothers."

This deployment to Iraq was the last one for the Black Watch infantry regiment, which had been at the vanguard of military expeditions from Waterloo to Kosovo. Its soldiers were from small villages like Burke's hometown of Fife, a farming, fishing and mining town on the east coast of Scotland. In 2006 the Black Watch joined other Scottish regiments to form the Royal Regiment of Scotland.

During many interviews held with the soldiers, Burke heard how quickly boredom turned to terror.

"One of the things we came to learn is that they spent a lot of time sitting in armored cars or just sitting about the desert waiting to do things," he said. "So these moments when they are attacked tend to be very sudden and very unexpected and almost over before they know what happened."

Burke stressed that this is not an anti-war play, but he lets the soldiers have their say.

"What the soldiers are saying to us is war fighting is easy, it's our job," he said. "So you can quite easily invade the country, take it over and that's not a problem. What's difficult is then trying to peace-keep in a country that doesn't want you there."

Scope's Prism Theatre will offer seating for 700 and consist of two banks of elevated seats facing each other, with the stage in between on the floor of the arena. The lighting and sound systems will be above and around the audience.

Burke said this arrangement can help the audience "surrender" to its intense action, because the seating is up close and the audience surrounds the action.

Actor Michael Nardone agrees.

"The layout of the space is like a parade-ground effect with the audience on both sides, so there's action and movement from one place to the next. It's like watching a tennis match. So you get a real bombardment of the senses. There's a bit of wow factor that goes on there because it is really very, very visual. It is a real visual feast."

Nardone, 43, recently toured Australia and New Zealand with "Black Watch."

"The subject matter is universal," he said. "It affects everybody one way or the other, whether you are pro-war or anti-war. This play is about more than that. It's about the delicacy of the human soul."

Touring with the play is "a real joy," he said. "I get to speak in my own tongue and work with fabulous people and get to be part of a real theatrical phenomenon."

Burke sums up the soldiers' workaday world quite simply.

"At the end of the day, when it all boils down to what the army is, it's a workplace."

"It's like any kind of industrial job where there is a large number of men involved in it and they depend on each other."

Roy Bahls, (757) 446-2351, roy.bahls@pilotonline.com