Gregory Burke's new play

In The Guardian, Mark Fisher talks to playwright Gregory Burke about his new play, Hoors

Until recently, Burke, now 41, was touting Hoors as the "disappointing follow-up to Black Watch" - displaying the self-deprecating humour typical of this man brought up in the tough expat naval community of Gibraltar, and in a working-class area of Dunfermline during the miners' strike. But he does have a point: it will be tough for Hoors to match the success of Black Watch, his riveting story of "The Gallant Forty-Twa", as the now-amalgamated Scottish regiment was known. Based on interviews with soldiers who served in Iraq, Black Watch hurtled its cast from a smoky Fife pool room to a world of bullets, bombs and brutal death. Last month, it picked up four Olivier awards, including one for best new play.

Today, Burke is feeling much more positive about Hoors, which opens at Edinburgh's Traverse next month before touring the UK: "I really like the script. It's funny and it's done all the things I wanted it to do." There are several reasons why Burke chose the play's title. "It's not a searing verbatim exploration of the sex industry. It's a metaphor. We're all whores. We all believe in what we believe at the time, and say what we want to get somewhere. How often do we reveal our true feelings?"