Want to Talk About Drone Warfare in a Downtown Theater? Come to Grounded on January 10
(© David Gordon)
You wake up. You go to work. You work. Then you go home, fall asleep, and do it all over again. But what if your day job was to kill people with a remote-controlled flying death robot? Would you be able to sleep soundly?
In George Brant’s Grounded, Hannah Cabell stars as a U.S. Air Force fighter pilot who, following the birth of her daughter, becomes an office-bound drone operator. From the safety of a trailer in the Nevada desert she hunts for bad guys with an MQ-9 Reaper flying over another desert thousands of miles away. In the play she describes this surreal experience as, “If Odysseus came home every day.” But can she ever truly leave the war when her shift is over?
After successful runs in London, Edinburgh, and San Francisco, Grounded is making its New York premiere at Walkerspace in a production by Page 73. Performances begin January 8.
Following the January 10 performance, TheaterMania critic Zachary Stewart will lead a post-performance Q&A with playwright George Brandt and Obie Award-winning director Ken Rus Schmoll. With the ethics of drone warfare increasingly under scrutiny as reports of civilian casualties surface, this promises to be a spirited and timely discussion.
