Broadway, and off-Broadway, is often full of happy songs with catchy tunes that stick in your head and laughter at the antics of characters on the stage. Other nights, it’s drama on the stage, and you’d best pack tissues. Sometimes, though, the stage is an incredible venue for exploring the important topics of our day. Productions have explored heavy topics such as mental health, racism, and troubled families. For a very limited run, you can see an intense exploration of the consequences of drone warfare in Anne Hathaway’s one-woman show, “Grounded”. It’s at Anspacher Theater (425 Lafayette Street) until May 24!
War from the Homefront
Once, war meant sending pilots overseas to fly missions in dangerous combat zones. The use of drones has changed the way battles are fought. When an F-16 pilot falls pregnant unexpectedly, she’s reassigned to flying drones from an Air Force trailer in the Nevada desert. After her 12-hour shift hunting remote targets has ended, she goes home again to spend time with her family.
As time passes, the computer game-like attacks she executes begin to take a psychological toll. The disconnection from the violence she’s perpetrating gnaws at her, and she finds it more difficult to balance her deadly day job with her family life at night. The play explores this pilot’s life, as well as meditates on the result of this new manner of waging war.
A Return to the Stage
Academy Award-winner Anne Hathaway returns to the stage for the first time since her role as Viola in “Twelfth Night” for Shakespeare in the Park. She’s known for her talent both on stage and screen, having played Fantine in “Les Miserables”, Catwoman in “The Dark Knight Rises”, and Amelia in “Interstellar”.
Seastreak wants you to take a starring role as one of our passengers! Let us roll out the red carpet and treat you like big-screen royalty with a ride on our luxurious catamarans!
Sea you soon!
The Seastreak Family
Filed Under: Grounded