Directors note : Grounded

March 1, 2019

Grounded is urgent and immediate. The play has been celebrated internationally since its first production and has been transferred, remounted, remade and revived all over the world. That is because it is, quite simply, a brilliant piece of writing for the stage. Tackling this work has been an exhilarating challenge.

 In this production we have trusted Brant’s storytelling completely, and focused our efforts in realising the psychology of The Pilot as the big blue freedom of her sky is replaced by the grey, droning screen and slow drift back and forth across the desert. Emily Havea has met the challenge of this role head on, and gives a performance we suspect may haunt this theatre for some time. The simplicity in this production is, we hope, deceptive – as we are reaching for something higher, more human and connected.

It is our hope that this production reminds us of the struggle and complexity of these modern conflicts, and that perhaps our willingness to hide behind technology has a significantly more human cost that we like to pretend, abroad and right here.

Dom Mercer
Director

Grounded 
14 – 23 March 2019