As the audience filed into the Olney Theater Center, the star of the show was already in place for the opening scene. Among all of the noise, shuffling into seats and general commotion, Megan Anderson stayed in character, waiting for the show to start.
The hit play “Grounded,” written by George Brant and directed by Derek Goldman, opens with a spunky Air Force pilot, portrayed by Anderson, sitting in her cockpit, zooming around in what she calls “the blue,” the endless and open sky.
The play is a one-woman show, with the heroine nameless and just called the “Pilot.” But the lack of a name did not make the audience connect with her any less. The audience laughed at her jokes, cheered at her joy and dismayed at her tragedy and turmoil.
The choice to keep the Pilot anonymous was brilliant. It represents the fact that post-traumatic stress disorder and internal moral conflicts affect all those who serve in the military. The Pilot is not a stand-alone case.
Flying is the Pilot’s addiction and what she was born to do. In the beginning, she remarks, “It’s more than a suit. It’s a speed. It’s a G6 force. It’s the danger. It’s the respect.” The seemingly simple Air Force pilot uniform is her entire identity. She uses it as a marker of who she is, where she is and what she is doing at any moment. During the play, her job defined her role as a mother, a wife and a woman.
While on leave from the Air Force, however, the Pilot’s life takes a 180 degree rotation. She falls in love with Eric, a man she meets at a bar. The audience gets to see another side of the harsh and fearless pilot – love struck. “Tears are not a weakness in him, and that is what I love,” she says of Eric. Shortly after, she discovers that she is pregnant – news she is not happy about at first.
Although her dream of starting a family is coming true, another one is dying. Due to her pregnancy, the Air Force transfers her to the “Chair Force,” where she is to fly drones. She has been grounded, and not in the teenage definition, but in a literal sense.
“We learned to fly with our asses on the ground,” the Pilot begrudgingly comments.
The suit she wears used to calm her. Before long, however, the suit becomes a terror that she cannot seem to get away from. When she drives across the Nevada desert home, the suit follows her, sometimes even still on her body. She cannot seem to take it off. And for a while, it is hard to even tell if she wants to escape it.
While dealing with emotionally scarring events (hunting and shooting “guilty military-aged men,” the Pilot does not lose her humor and bruteness. She continues to curse, describe her sexual encounters with her husband in detail and make witty comments. Some of the audience’s favorites included “It’d be a very different book, the ‘Odyssey,’ if Odysseus came home every night,” and “They don’t make drones in Fisher Price – at least not yet.”
Anderson plays the role of the Pilot perfectly, hunting terrorists by day and being haunted by terrors by night. The audience gets to see her quickly transition and put on different “masks” – mother, wife, pilot, lover and traumatized drone controller.
Although the play is a one woman show, it feels complete. Anderson nails the role of the Pilot and does not leave the audience thirsting for more – her perfectly timed action and constant dialogue is enough to fill the huge stage .
In a typical play, the sets change with each act. However, this play has a more modern feel, and the effect of set changes was achieved with computer screens. Whether the Pilot was at home, driving through the desert, at the mall or in the drone control room, the screens changed to reflect her new location. The lights on top of the stage were perfectly in tune to her every step and word.
Overall, the play was captivating enough that the audience did not mind one bit that there was no intermission. In fact, it would have taken away from the play if there was an abrupt pause in the middle.
“Grounded” is an eye-opening production, bringing to (literal) light the severity of mental and physical trauma that active duty in the Armed Forces brings.
