Grounded is the story of an unnamed fighter pilot who ends up sacrificing her beloved blue sky for a family life. After being “grounded” (as in, unable to fly her jet) due to her pregnancy, she returns to work to find she has been resentenced to operate the new drones in the Middle East from a remote station in Las Vegas. The story focuses on how this change affects her mental state and views on life, and it emphasizes this through highlighting contrast. Instead of being alone in a jet facing the risk of death, the pilot is stuck in a chair staring at a screen for twelve straight hours, returning to her family every night rather than only coming home twice a year. The most important contrast is how she views her targets. In the beginning, she describes how she finds her target from her plane, then flies out of there before anything happens; working for the drones, she has no choice but to watch the victims become “the same color as the ground”. This takes a toll on her sanity, and she finds it more and more difficult to separate her own life from the lives she is hunting at work, which culminates in a terrifying conclusion.
The Playbill offers background information on drones so the audience can understand some of the vernacular and concepts in the play. It also offers some anecdotes by people who work with drones, politicians, and other experts on the play’s concept. The selected opinions regarding drone usage aren’t biased as a whole, though some are notably more tied to the message of the show than others. One is by a drone operator much like the protagonist of the story, and he describes the horror of watching the attacked members turn the ”same color as the ground he was lying on” as the heat of life leaves their body. We hear those words repeated by the pilot in the play. The show truly does reflect real experience, which is why it comes across as so genuine.
Grounded is a single woman show, which makes it easier to relate to the pilot- there is no one else to distract us from her and her turmoil. It also makes her visions more terrifying, since if she doesn’t know what is real or fake, neither do we (an element coming into play in the finale). The layout of the small theater makes it even more personal; the stage is in the center, the audience surrounding Anne, making it so there is almost always somebody for her to directly look towards. The play is structured this way so we can understand the pilot enough to become her (and her not having a name makes her more of an everywoman) and understand how her story transcends the stage.
Hathaway is fantastic at showing her character’s journey from a cool confident pilot to a constantly paranoid, anxious drone operator, being emotive without being too hammy. Her dancing to mix tapes and a few other silly moments may sound like they don’t fit the serious tone of the story, but a story meant to reflect life as it is must be as varied as life itself. (Even that moment has emotional significance, made by her husband to lessen her anxiety and connect her to what she loved again.) I was unable to reach Hathaway for comment, though I would have loved to know her approach towards portraying the pilot. Does she envision the other characters that aren’t portrayed by anyone, simply referenced by the pilot? Does she project any of her own feelings onto her character to aid the realism? Does she agree with the message of the piece?