BWW Reviews: Gamm Opens Season with Riveting Solo Show GROUNDED

"With literature, human beings have invented a way of enabling us to try out and weigh up the possibilities of action and thought." That excellent quote by author Michael Rosen also sums up the essential quality of live theater. It allows the audience to actually experience a moment in time, a moment in the life of a person or people, and share in that moment. Not only share in it, but truly live it and feel it. Grounded, the first play of the Gamm's 30th season, perfectly accomplishes this feat, giving the audience an entirely real experience, allowing us to live inside the mind of a person and become one with their actions and thoughts.

That aforementioned quote came from a presentation given at the International Book Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland. That is also the city where Grounded, written by George Brant, first made it's appearance, at the famous Edinburgh Fringe. In the short time since then, Brant's play has won many awards and accolades, receiving productions around the U.S. and the world.

With only one performer, an actress playing an American fighter pilot, the play examines many issues that are both timely and timeless, from the ethics of using unmanned drones in combat to the decisions faced by members of the armed services, and the consequences of those decisions. Only called "The Pilot," our heroine is literally grounded after an unexpected pregnancy derails her career as a top notch flyer of fighter jets. She is soon reassigned to a bunker in the Nevada desert, where she flies drones over Afghanistan. The new assignment may come with some perks (go home every day, see your husband and kids all the time!) but it also has its own unique stressors and challenges, both physical and mental.

As "The Pilot," Liz Hayes perfectly draws us into all of those challenges, all of the physical and emotional turmoil of this character we watch for the entire length of the play's seventy-five minutes. For that short time, there is no Liz Hayes, there is only The Pilot, a fully realized person who the audience gets to know, sympathize with, root for and care about. And that is an absolute credit to Hayes and her impressive talent. She fully commits to the performance and never breaks or drops the character for a moment, at least as far as we the audience can tell. She also manages to demonstrate how a one-person show should be done, with no sense of ego or attention-seeking. It never feels like an actress trying to prove how well she can handle the rigors of a lengthy solo performance. Instead, it feels true and real, like we are sitting with this fighter pilot, at the bar or somewhere familiar, as she tells us her story. Tells it directly to us. That is really what it's all about, the actor as storyteller, and Hayes is absolutely perfect at bringing this particular tale to no-holds-barred, extremely vivid life.

This is a show that really could be done with extreme simplicity, just an actor in a room, telling a story for an hour (which is a good way to describe many excellent Edinburgh Fringe shows). In this case, though, Hayes has some help bringing the story to life. Like any great director would, Judith Swift disappears into the performance. That is, it never feels like there's a director pulling the strings and pushing the actor around on stage. While it can be argued that there's too much movement going on, that The Pilot needs to stop pacing and prowling so much, all of the movement suits the tense, tightly wound personality of the character. She's conflicted and complex, at times filled with anxiety or confusion, and her physical actions on and around the stage fit those qualities.

It's also debatable how much the play really needs the video projections which fill the back wall of the stage. Having never read the script, they may all be called for and described by the playwright. Or, they may be an added touch to this production. Either way, they are fine most of the time, occasionally going a long way to help tell the story and add emotional punch to a scene or moment. At other times, they seem superfluous and, I would even say, distracting. During some moments, they take away from where the focus should be, squarely on the performer and what she is saying. Along with the projections, all of the other technical elements are up to the Gamm's usual high standards. The simple set and costume requirements are effective and the excellent lighting design, by Matthew Terry, does a superb job of helping to tell the story.

Returning to that story, and to Rosen's quote from Edinburgh, he continued, "When we find we care, we usually spend some time speculating about the whys and wherefores, the rights and wrongs, the truths and untruths of the thought and action." There is no doubt that you will do just that after seeing this play, and I definitely recommend that you see it. Right up until the chilling, immensely effective ending, you will be confronted with the rights and wrongs, the truths and untruths. And you will be left to think about them on your own, to decide which is side is actually right or wrong, which truth or untruth is the most vital, and whether or not you might actually be among the guilty.

Grounded runs until September 28th at The Gamm Theatre, 172 Exchange Street, Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Tickets are $41 and $49 (depending on day/time) and are available by calling 401-723-4266, visiting the website at www.gammtheatre.org, or visiting the box office. Hours are Mon - Fri, 10am-3pm, Show Days, 12pm - show time. On performance days, the box office phone is answered until 1/2 hour before curtain. Showtimes for Grounded are Tuesday through Thursday at 7pm, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm, and Sundays at 2pm and 7pm.

Pictured: Liz Hayes. Photo by Peter Goldberg.

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