Review Roundup: GROUNDED at Westport Country Playhouse

The 2016 Lucille Lortel Award-winning play, "Grounded," a contemporary drama about a US Air Force fighter pilot who is grounded by an unexpected pregnancy, will be staged at Westport Country Playhouse, now through July 29. BroadwayWorld has a first look at Elizabeth Stahlmann in action below!

Written by George Brant, the play also earned a Fringe First Award at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and was short-listed for the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression Award. Playing the role of The Pilot in the solo production is Elizabeth Stahlmann, a recent graduate of Yale School of Drama. Director is Liz Diamond, chair of Yale School of Drama's Directing department and resident director at Yale Repertory Theatre.

In "Grounded," an ace F-16 fighter pilot finds her world flipped from top gun to top mom when an unexpected pregnancy results in her being grounded. Reassigned to the "chair force" as a drone pilot near Las Vegas, the realities of war and suburban comfort collide. The story offers a glimpse into one soldier's struggle to define herself in the modern world.

"Grounded" has received over 100 productions in 18 different countries and has been translated into nine languages. Named a "Top 10 London Play of 2013" by both The Guardian and Evening Standard, "Grounded" has been commissioned by the Metropolitan Opera to be adapted into an opera with music by Tony Award winner Jeanine Tesori, and is being developed into a feature film starring Anne Hathaway.

The design team includes Riccardo Hernandez, scenic design, who also designed the Off-Broadway production of "Grounded"; Jennifer Moeller, costume design; Solomon Weisbard, lighting design; and Kate Marvin, sound design.

Let's see what the critics have to say!

Post Chronicle (Tom Holehan): There is dramatic use of lighting (Solomon Weisbard), sound (Kate Marvin) and especially projections (Yana Birykova) throughout "Grounded", but the linear staging soon allows tedium to set in. Ms. Stahlman starts in a chair, walks right to indicate her home, walks left to go back to work. Sometimes she sits on the back of the chair with her legs on the seat. Other times she is behind the chair. You get the idea. I do not blame the actress or the director who are certainly both immensely talented. They are doing as well as can be expected given the material they've been handed.

Hartfourd Courant (Christopher Arnott): The glory of "Grounded" is that it has all these weapons of mass destruction at its disposal, but instead it tells a small, powerful story of a single woman whose life and consciousness are changed by her military service. Director Liz Diamond (one of Stahlmann's professors at Yale, who selected her for this role) knows exactly the degree to which Stahlmann can emote, and tunes the rest of the production accordingly.

BroadwayWorld (Sherry Shameer Cohen): This portrait, flawlessly played by Stahlmann, is not unusual. Many soldiers suffer from PTST. The play evokes questions about that, especially since women are twice as likely to get it. How do women soldiers reconcile their ability to kill and their ability to give life? StahlmAnn Humanizes the pilot and her meltdown in a credible way. Riccardo Hernandez's simple military/industrial set design complements the dismal work conditions of the drone operators. Kate Marvin's sound design and Solomon Weisbard's lighting are perfect. But Yana Birÿkova's projections are spectacular. Kudos also to Liz Diamond for her excellent direction. This is a play that is especially timely because this year is the 100th anniversary of the U.S. military service's using clones (also referred to as unmanned aerial vehicles) and the fact that the U.S. is still at war in Afghanistan after nearly 16 years. The Air Force is training more pilots for drones than for conventional aircraft. As of mid-2016, there have been an estimated 4,189 militants and 479 civilians killed by drones.