Grounded

Winner of a Scotsman Fringe First Award 2013. Shortlisted for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award 2013 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2013. Seamlessly blending the personal and the political, Grounded tells the story of a hot-rod F16 fighter pilot whose unexpected pregnancy ends her career in the sky. Repurposed to flying remote-controlled drones in the Middle East from an air-conditioned trailer near Vegas, the Pilot struggles through surreal twelve-hour shifts far from the battlefield, hunting terrorists by day and being a wife and mother by night. A tour de force play for one actress, Grounded flies from the heights of lyricism to the shallows of workaday existence, targeting our assumptions about war, family, and the power of storytelling. Grounded was the winner of the 2012 Smith Prize.