Observations: How the Black Watch took me to the real theatre of war

Last week, Black Watch opened at St Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York. On its previous run in the city – thanks to The New York Times, which proclaimed it "one of the most richly human works of art to have emerged from this long-lived war" – it was a sell-out sensation.

Two years after it opened on the Edinburgh Fringe to rapturous reviews, and after successful tours of duty in the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, the popularity of the play about a Scottish regiment serving in Iraq is as high as ever. For those who haven't been able to get tickets, there's now a DVD too.

I was embedded with the Black Watch battle group in Iraq and have seen the play twice. I found it a powerful piece of work and, in parts, extremely moving. But the crucial question of why Iraq became such a seminal place for a regiment that had fought in so many wars was never quite satisfactorily answered.

There was a sustained mortar barrage the day I flew into Dogwood, a desolate base established by the US Marines and named after a place in The Simpsons. Some of us had just come down from Baghdad, and there such attacks were not uncommon. It was, however, a new experience for the soldiers, many terribly young, who had previously been in the much more benign environment of Basra.

We were taken aback by how little the British troops had been prepared for service in this particularly dangerous part of the country, and for the different type of insurgents they would be facing, especially suicide bombers, a terrifying phenomenon unknown in the British-controlled south of the country.

The regiment's reaction to the media was, initially, highly suspicious but familiarity bred an element of trust. The media were not patronised as the play depicted, and there was a lot more political talk about Iraq and the future of the regiment than the play allows.

Black Watch is also about what makes a soldier – the so-called "golden thread", a mystical concept woven around kinship and shared traditions, the fellowship of men at arms. The play carries this aspect off well, thanks to some excellent acting. Jack Fortune is particularly good as the commander, based on Colonel James Cowan – in real life a fine and thoughtful soldier – "cursed" by his military heritage. Perhaps one of the reasons that Fortune slips into the role so well is because his own family had served for generations in the Black Watch. Others in the cast also empathised to an unusual degree with their roles.

This was something I understood. Journalists spending prolonged amount of time with the troops often find the lines blurring, something one should avoid in order to retain objectivity. The success of the production lies in the fact that the audiences feel empathy with the soldiers and identify briefly with these lives less ordinary. What they do not get, though, is any real insight into Iraq.

www.stannswarehouse.org; the DVD of 'Black Watch' is out now on BBC Scotland (£19.99)