Grounded

I keep going to the theatre simply hoping for 80 minutes as gripping as Grounded.

It’s superb.

Kate Cole utterly inhabits the role of a female Top Gun who finds herself grounded following the birth of her daughter, part of the ‘Chair Force’, pulling 12 hour shifts at a monitor in a caravan in the Las Vegas desert, controlling a drone, bombing targets on the opposite side of the world.

George Brant’s solo play is rich, dark, dense theatrical poetry. The use and manipulation of language is extraordinary.

But this is more than a solo tour de force for Cole. In a supremely crafted production by Kirsten von Bibra, composer Elizabeth Drake’s astonishing soundscape evokes the earthbound fighter pilot’s inner turmoil, while Matthew Adey’s visual design combines striking lighting effectively with simple white box set. It’s a marvelously orchestrated exploration of a beautifully written script.

Along the way I gained a clearer understanding of drone warfare than I ever imagined, in a play which probes the psychological and moral impact of modern remote control warfare.

I commend you to Coral Drouyn’s review of the original Melbourne season for more on this fine production – click here - rather than going into any further detail, which she has already so eloquently supplied.

I look forward to further Sydney visits from Melbourne’s remarkable Red Stitch.

And my advice is simple – See Grounded!

Neil Litchfield

Photographer: Jodie Hutchinson