"Grounded"

April 30, 2016 — It's a significant achievement when a lone actor can hold an audience's rapt attention for one hundred minutes without an intermission, but that's what theatre KAPOW's Carey Cahoon accomplished in "Grounded" by George Brant at the Derry Opera House in Derry, New Hampshire.

I've seen Carey, winner of the 2014 New Hampshire Theatre Award for Best Actress, in many fine performances, but this was one of her most intense. As a female fighter pilot (unnamed), she loves every aspect of her job, the thrill, the speed, the danger, even her flight suit, and the camaraderie with "my guys." It's what she lives for. But everything changes when she finds herself pregnant. Air Force regulations require she be grounded. After the birth of her daughter, she assumes she will be returned to her former job, but she's assigned to a drone, thousands of miles away, which she will control from a computer console in Las Vegas. Pilots derisively call it the "Chair Force."

On a stage with five video screens as a backdrop, and no other props other than a chair, Carey spills out her anger and frustration for more than an hour and a half over her loss of identity, her twelve-hour seven-day-a-week shifts, and none of the camaraderie she enjoyed as a pilot. With everyone working different shifts, there are no after-hours get-togethers. At the same time, she's devoted to her family. It's a case of a woman balancing job and family on a grand scale.

Directed by Matt Cahoon, with clever integration of video on the five screens by Nicole Porter, lighting design by Tayva Young, music by Nat Word, and Brad Fitzgerald manning the light board, this was a brilliant production all around. The audience was invited to remain after the show for a discussion of what they witnessed, In spite of the one hundred minutes without a break, most of us stayed another twenty minutes while Carey and Matt fielded questions and comments.

The final performance will be this afternoon at 2 p.m. If you miss that, there will be a scaled-back presentation at the Aviation Museum on June 3:

http://www.nhahs.org/