Friday night in the festival city

This entry is from The Daily Telegraph's official Sydney Festival Blog.

Six hundred souls have crammed themselves into the big theatre at Carriageworks this evening to witness the opening night of Black Watch, a show straight from the National Theatre of Scotland.

“It’s the biggest audience we have played to,” the director told me just moments ago.

“And this venue is the best we have performed in. We want Carriageworks in Scotland. We need a Carriageworks! Maybe we should move the National Theatre here.”

Walking into the theatre, the audience are seated facing each other. It’s like a football stadium for the theatre. Lights are flashing back and forth across the stage, up into the rafters and into the crowd and it brings images of an Edinburgh Tattoo.

Black Watch is a piece that follows the lives of ten soldiers from the 42nd Regiment who are sent to the Iraq war. The story documents meetings between the men and a young playwright who wants to hear and write about their stories. It is needless to say that the profanities used when following Scottish troops is... well there are 273 c***s, and 576 f***s or f****ns.

Enveloped by this raw world are scenes straight from their experiences on the front, fighting with American troops. It is a real story, where three of the Scots lost lives and it follows the events leading up to their deployment, their arrival and then the weight of tragedy upon their shoulders.

It is a piece that is a huge spectacle on so many levels. The scenes, the choreography, the lighting and sound are so surprising that it the audience were gripped from the word go.

Michael from South Australia who flew into Sydney to see a whole heap of shows at the festival, said that this one is a “knockout”. He also added that Black Watch is the “best piece of political theatre seen in this country in the last twenty years”.

Ian and Sarah from the inner west of the city said that the show was “phenomenal”. Ian was one of many Scots who turned up to see the show from the national theatre which is only two years old. He just told me that his father had recommended the show after first seeing it in Glasgow.

I head up to the Becks Bar where a thousand gathered to hear the sound of Brazil, Uber Brazil and Monbloco. A huge Brazilian contingent of locals strutted their stuff, to the South American rhythms on what is quite a balmy night in Sydney

An alternative Brazilian group (above) set up outside the Becks Festival Bar with drums, whistles and trumpets a crowd surrounded them for a big street fiesta. They then headed through Hyde Park and into the night.

It’s Friday night in the festival city and it is going off.