Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Grounded, Gate Theatre, review: 'mesmerising'

If you wanted proof that virtue is its own reward in theatreland, take a look at Lucy Ellinson's performance in Grounded. She is nothing short of mesmerising as a Top Gun pilot, who, after having a baby, is reduced to doing shifts in front of a computer screen in an air-conditioned trailer near Las Vegas. Her job is to steer unmanned "drone" aircraft towards their targets in the Middle East. And then to press the button that blows the enemy combatants below to pieces.

The thing that distinguishes great theatre from run-of-the-mill theatre is that it makes us think. During the show, and after it, Grounded had me thinking a lot: about what it is that we really stand for in the West these days; what, if any, nobility there is in modern warfare; how, if we spend our lives staring at computer screens, we deprive ourselves – and those around us – of a great deal of our humanity.

The pilot in Brant's piece feels that life in the "chair force" sucks. Suddenly, overnight, she finds herself deprived of the camaraderie of her fellow pilots. She still wears her uniform, but no longer feels she deserves the respect it commands. Above all, she can't see herself as a heroine any more: how can she be one when she no longer faces the possibility of death?

On the grey screen she sits in front of each day, she can sometimes make out the faces of the people she is ordered to kill – the people who, in her new role as God, she decrees are guilty – and eventually it becomes too much for her.

Ellinson plays the role in one continuous monologue – a bright and feisty young woman, triumphing in a man's world at the outset, who gradually disintegrates before our eyes.

This production may not have been accorded the importance it deserves, but, by golly, that does not mean it is not important.

Gate Theatre, to May 30 | gatetheatre.co.uk; 020 7229 0706

WATCH: 'TITUS ANDRONICUS DIDN'T MAKE ME FAINT, BUT SHIVER'

Source : http://telegraph.feedsportal.com/c/32726/f/568414/s/39ee0a25/sc/38/l/0L0Stelegraph0O0Cculture0Ctheatre0Ctheatre0Ereviews0C10A7994780CGrounded0EGate0ETheatre0Ereview0Emesmerising0Bhtml/story01.htm