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M O N D AY, N O V E M B E R 0 5 , 2 0 0 7"Black Watch" At St. Ann's WarehouseWith the clock falling back, a rave in the New York Times, sold outshows and the constant, almost hectoring reminders of St. Ann's thatpeople arriving late for "Black Watch" simply would NOT get in, wemade sure to arrive very early indeed for this Scottish play about thefabled military regiment -- think of it as their Marines, perhaps. Theform, indeed the story itself, is very familiar. Vets back from apunishing war are wary of talking to a writer, who wins them over byoffering to pay for their beer even if he does ask banally obviousquestions and keeps insisting "I understand" when of course the wholepoint is that he doesn't understand and needs to ask questions so hecan start. Then we flash back to their time in Iraq, with soldierssalivating over the various food they'll eat when back home, takingturns ordering their meals at a Chinese restaurant and then an Indianone while riding in the back of a transport vehicle. They fight, theycurse, they look at porn, they show little interest in the politics backhome, they duck when the shelling comes too close and sometimes theydie.So the content for me was familiar, as it would be to anyone who's donea modicum of reading about soldiers during war. But what wasgenuinely thrilling was the direction and choreography of "BlackWatch." Director John Tiffany makes full use of the space, with actorsroaring about from one end to the other. A constantly shiftingperspective has actors up in the scaffolding at one moment followed byothers across the room on the ground at the next. Scenes flowseamlessly into one another, costume changes sometimes take place infull view, and something as simple as three men leaning back in theirchairs and slamming down onto the ground in unison can be quietlymesmerizing. Two especially vivid moments stick out. The first was thescene of soldiers reading letters from home (one after another readsmutely, lets their letter fall to the ground and then begins to perform insign language what they're feeling or what they've read or what theywant to say in response). Just beautiful. The other was an extendedsequence in which our hero details the history of Scotland's BlackWatch, all while being dressed and undressed in the uniforms of thatfabled unit from the very beginning to the present. The speaker is liftedup and turned over and bent backwards by others and clothed andNext Blog»sal1mineo@hotmail.comSEARCH BLOG FLAG BLOGFOLLOW BLOGP O P S U R F I N G . C O MS U R F I N G T H E WAV E S O F P O P U L A R C U LT U R EB Y M I C H A E L G I LT Z & F R I E N D SPOPSURFING.COM: "Black Watch" At St. Ann's Warehousehttp://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2007/11/black-watch-at-st-anns...
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POPSURFING.COM: "Black Watch" At St. Ann's Warehousehttp://popsurfing.blogspot.com/2007/11/black-watch-at-st-anns...
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