The Sunday Telgraph
13 January 2008

Scene

BLACK WATCH OPENING NIGHT

CarriageWorks Bay 17, Eveleigh

The cream of Australia's acting community gathered for the opening of one of the Sydney Festival's most acclaimed performances.

Cate Blanchett and hubby Andrew Upton, actress Rose Byrne and her actor boyfriend, Brendan Cowell, Jeremy Simms and his wife, Samantha Lang, David Wenham and partner Kate Agnew, and John Bell and wife Anna Volska stood out among the casually dressed audience of Black Watch.

The play, which takes a provocative look at Britain's military involvement in Iraq and the Scottish identity, was a sell-out hit at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and its cast of 10 drew a huge round of applause on the night.

Black Watch, which had been on a hugely successful world tour before arriving here, is based on interviews with former soldiers.

Its plot swings between interviews in Scotland and the harsh reality of service in Iraq.

Playwright Gregory Burke drew on experiences gleaned fromsoldiers in their mid-20s who had served in Iraq.

The action is based on their true stories of extreme danger and boredom, the madness of war and the pressures of being in a country that didn't want them.