Susan Granger’s review of “Grounded” (Westport Country Playhouse)
Talk about timely! George Brant’s provocative theatrical monologue revolves around a cocky U.S. Air Force Pilot (Elizabeth Stahlmann) who revels in her job, feeling exhilarated “up in the blue,” dropping missiles on desert fortresses in Iraq.
As she tells it, her beloved F-16 is out of there even before the explosion happens. Afterwards, she unwinds with other “Top Gun” boys, downing drinks at the bar.
While on leave at home in Wyoming, she meets Eric, who works in a hardware store. “Most guys don’t like what I do,” she notes with a macho swagger. “Feel they’re less of a guy around me. I take the guy spot, and they don’t know where they belong.”
Seeing her in a flight suit, Eric’s turned on. Soon she’s pregnant, which means she has to take a desk job. “I want the sky. I want the blue, but I can’t kill her,” she wails plaintively.
After her daughter is born, she reports back for active duty, only to discover that she’s been re-assigned to the “Chair Force.” Her new job is to pilot an $11-million unmanned drone, sitting in front of a video monitor in an air-conditioned trailer on a base outside of Las Vegas, Nevada – for 12 hours each day.
She’s devastated but her commander assures her, “In one year, the drone will be king.”
The evocative lighting (Solomon Weisbard), sound (Kate Marvin) and cinematic projections (Yana Birykova) convey the harrowing reality and immediacy of long-distance combat. A drone pilot not only sees the faces of the ‘enemy’ close-up but also bears witness to the destruction when her missiles hit the ground.
Although Eric gets a job as a blackjack dealer in a casino and does his best to try to understand the pressure she’s under, the Pilot eventually suffers PTSD or, according to the latest lingo, “a moral injury.”
Carrying this intense performance piece on her slim shoulders is Elizabeth Stahlmann, a recent graduate of the Yale School of Drama. Under the direction of the Yale Rep’s Liz Diamond with a metal chair as her only prop – she establishes an easygoing rapport with the audience, which intensifies their empathy as she becomes mired in conflicting emotions, steeped in the psychological side-effects of remote warfare.
FYI: Anne Hathaway, who played the Pilot in Julie Taymor’s 2015 Off-Broadway production, immediately optioned the property and it’s in development as a major motion picture.
“Grounded” plays at the Westport Country Playhouse thru July 29. For tickets and more information, call 203-227-4177 or go to www.westportplayhouse.org