Black Watch excerpt features in stunning new Tartan exhibition at Dundee’s V&A

The National Theatre of Scotland play, written by Fifer Gregory Burke, became a global hit.

It played to packed audiences at venues across across Scotland, including Rothes Halls in Glenrothes.

Performance footage from Black Watch’s iconic ‘fashion scene' will be featured.

It shows the dressing of the young soldier Cammy, by the rest of the company, with a chronology of Black Watch uniforms from 1739 up until 2004. This scene is choreographed by associate director, Steven Hoggett, and staged as a catwalk-meets-history lesson. The centuries old Black Watch tartan and the red hackle are globally recognised and are vital and significant parts of the regiment’s identity.

Alongside the excerpt, is a screening a short filmed Q&A that took place at Morgan Academy, Dundee earlier this year. Students had the opportunity to present questions to the writer and award-winning director John Tiffany about the production.

Black Watch opened at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2006 to critical acclaim. It toured the world for seven years, picking up multiple awards including four Laurence Olivier Awards and the New York Drama Critics' Circle Award for Best Foreign Play. It regularly features in lists celebrating the Top 50 plays of the 21 Century.

Tiffany has since gone to direct the globe-trotting hit, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, while Burke has written numerous films and TV series including the forthcoming major reimagining of Scottish TV detective drama Rebus.

Jackie Wylie, artistic director of the National Theatre of Scotland said: “I am delighted that our seminal production Black Watch lives on as part of the rich fabric of Scottish cultural life -not only featuring in V&A Dundee’s iconic Tartan exhibition but as a digital resource to be experienced by young people across Scotland and beyond.”

The new exhibition presents a radical new look at one of the world’s best-known fabrics, telling the story of tartan from the historic to the contemporary, including iconic examples of fashion, architecture, product design, film, performance and fine art.

Tartan is at the V&A from April1 until January 2024.