Grounded explores the modern sense of isolation compounded by one of the most controversial technological advances of this century – drone warfare.
A fighter pilot who lives for her time flying missions finds herself commuting to war, spending twelve hour days staring at a grey desert thousands of miles away before returning to her husband and daughter. The real begins to blur and shift as paranoia and ritual take hold.
Lucy Ellison gave a powerhouse performance, thoroughly inhabiting the character and invoking her family and colleagues with clarity overcoming this challenge of solo performance. She was trapped onstage within a two metre square cube with chameleon properties; lighting morphing the action – intense to bright, LEDs lighting up the floor like stars.
Supported only by the pounding music of AC/DC, Ellison engaged the audience throughout with just her presence; storytelling with music which rivalled the talent of Kieran Hurley in the blood-pumping ode-to-rave Beats.
This intelligent piece of theatre was a sophisticated and powerful piece of writing, which opened up questions about the consequences of war on the individuals who wage it and the shape of our world just a few years into the future with a fierce urgency.
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