The Gate Theatre has announced an extension for its critically acclaimed, smash-hit production of George Brant’s Grounded, which has returned to the Gate following two previous sell-out runs. The production, which opened last night (27 February 2017) after previews from 23 February, now runs for an extra week until 25 March.
Lucy Ellinson once again stars a hot-rod F16 fighter pilot. She’s pregnant. Her career in the sky is over. Now, she sits in an air-conditioned trailer in Las Vegas flying remote-controlled drones over the Middle East. She struggles through surreal 12 hours shifts far from the battlefield hunting terrorists by day and being a wife and mother by night.
Grounded is a gripping, compulsive play that targets our assumptions about war, family, and what it is to be a woman.
The production is directed by the Gate’s outgoing artistic director Christopher Haydon and designed by Oliver Townsend, with lighting by Mark Howland, sound by Tom Gibbons and video by Benjamin Walden.
Bios
George Brant’s play Grounded was produced Off-Broadway in New York at the Public Theater, starring Anne Hathaway and a film of the play is currently in creation, also starring Hathaway. His other plays include Elephant’s Graveyard (David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award from the Kennedy Center, Austin Critics’ Table Best New Play Award, and Keene Prize for Literature), The Mourners’ Bench, Salvage, Three Voyages of the Lobotomobile, Grizzly Mama, Any Other Name, Defiant, Dark Room, Miracle: A Tragedy, Good on Paper, Ashes, NOK, The Lonesome Hoboes, One Hand Clapping, The Royal Historian of Oz, Lovely Letters, Three Men in a Boat, Borglum! The Mount Rushmore Musical, Tights on a Wire and Night of the Mime. He has received writing fellowships from the James A. Michener Center for Writers, the McCarter Theatre Center, the MacDowell Colony, the Djerassi Resident Artists Program, Fundacion Valparaiso and the Blue Mountain Center as well as commissions from Dobama Theatre and Theatre 4.
Lucy Ellinson plays The Pilot. Her previous work for the Gate Theatre includes The Christians (also Traverse Theatre – Best Supporting Female Actor, Off-West End Awards), Trojan Women and Tenet (Gate Theatre and Greyscale). Other theatre credits include A Midsummer Night’s Dream (RSC and tour), World Factory (Young Vic), Money: The Game Show (Unlimited Theatre and Bush Theatre), Oh the Humanity! and other good intentions (Northern Stage and Soho Theatre), A Thousand Shards of Glass (Jane Packman Co), Presumption (Third Angel, UK/international tour), Land Without Words (UK/international tour), 3rd Ring Out (Metis Arts), Where We Meet, Who We Are, Speed death of the Radiant Child and Home-made (Chris Goode), They Only Come at Night and Helium (Slung Low) and Monsters (Arcola). Radio credits include 15 Minutes Live and The Fall. She is an associate artist with Third Angel and Forest Fringe. Her solo work includes One minute manifesto, Kaidan and #TORYCORE.
Christopher Haydon directs. He is the outgoing Artistic Director at the Gate Theatre and formerly an Associate Director at the Bush Theatre. His credits at the Gate include The Convert, Diary of a Madman (also Traverse Theatre), The Iphigenia Quartet, The Christians (also Traverse Theatre, winner: Fringe First), Image of an Unknown Young Woman (winner: Best Production, Off West End Awards), The Edge of Our Bodies, Trojan Women, Purple Heart, The Prophet and Wittenburg. Other theatre credits include Twelve Angry Men (Birmingham Rep/West End), Sixty-Six Books, In the Beginning (Bush Theatre/Westminster Abbey), A Safe Harbour for Elizabeth Bishop (Southbank Centre), Grace, Pressure Drop (On Theatre), Deep Cut (Sherman Cymru/National Tour), Monsters, Notes from Underground (Arcola Theatre) and A Number (Salisbury Playhouse). His short films include The Taming of the Shrew/Two Gentleman of Verona (Shakespeare’s Globe), Devil in the Detail (Royal Court Theatre/Guardian). As a journalist he has written for: The Scotsman, The Financial Times, The Independent, The Guardian, The New Statesman and Prospect Magazine. He is the co-editor of three books: Conversations on Religion, Conversations on Truth (Continuum), and Identity and Identification (Black Dog).
