by Richard Pacheco
“Grounded”
by George Brant opens the Gamm’s 30th anniversary season, with a New
England Premiere, sparked by superb acting and reverberating intensity. It was
selected for the NNPN’s (National New Play Network) Rolling World Premiere
program, which begat the Kansas City
run, as well as last year’s productions in San Francisco
and Tucson. It tells the tale of a
hotshot female pilot who can fly with or drink with the best of them. This one
person drama takes this hot shot fighter pilot from plowing through the blue of
the skies to being grounded when an unexpected encounter leaves her pregnant,
and grounded unable to be a fighter pilot.. After her daughter is born, she
ends up in Las Vegas in a
windowless room, now flying drone on
missions, not piloting a fighter. It produces mixed feelings in her, feelings
of gratefulness that she can be with her husband and daughter on a daily basis
out of harm’s way, and confusion and disoriented by the experience of seeking
bad guys from an armchair, not flying a jet, but handling a joystick more like
a gamer than a pilot. This juxtaposition leaves its own battle scars and
personal impact on her.
Liz Hayes
is the ace pilot in the midst of major transition, not only in what she does
and how she does it, but in the impact of being a cocky fighter pilot and
having a daughter who likes pink ponies, not exactly what she had in mind, her
daughter evolving into what she calls a “hair flipper.” Hayes is simply amazing
in the role. She delivers a wide range of nuance and sincerity as she takes the
pilot from boisterous days of flying a
jet and the camaraderie she finds there to her fractured existence as a drone
pilot, enmeshed with in a confined space, both physically and mentally. It is a
sheer delight, full of taut emotions and convincing shifts in mental attitude
and health, transitions that are remarkable and revealing.
The pilots
spends her days obliterating the bad guys from her armchair with intense focus
and an almost casual indifference. There
is an element of unreality in it for her. Then lines begin to blur between her
desert war from a distance and her life in Las Vegas.
Cracks begin to show as she follows from her drone a man know as “The prophet”
who travels through the desert without ever leaving his car for a call of
nature, or to get gas.
Judith
Swift directs with a keen eye and she knows how to keep things taut and
compelling, keeping an eye toward the action even when the play itself falters
a bit in that respect. She keeps it all on track, from character nuances to
providing grounds for a propelling riveting performance by Hayes.
The set and
media by Sara Ossana can often be
fascinating with a broad screen behind with airy footage of catapulting
through the clouds. At first some of the images are washed out, but then grow
in clarity and conviction to make them an incredible enhancement, particularly
with the grayed aerial footage of the drones when the done fires on the “bad
guys” and they get blown to bits as seen from way high up, the eye in the sky.
The play
runs just over an hour with no intermission and a riveting, compelling and
intriguing performance by Hayes. It is spellbinding, piercing drama. It lingers
in the mind and heart as it broaches topics so common today in so many
different ways.
“Grounded” at the Gamm Theatre
until Sept. 28, 2014 172 Exchange St., Pawtucket. Tickets are $36-$45. Call (401) 723-4266, or visit gammtheatre.org.
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