The Plane Truth

An American pilot crashes onto a farm in an unnamed town in an unknown place. It could be anywhere or nowhere—there’s a horizon, a dirt floor, and a group of people who speak an unrecognizable language. The pilot is having a hard time explaining to these folks who he is and how he got there. But he desperately needs to communicate with them because they seem intent on killing him.

Thus begins The American Pilot by David Greig presented in its regional premiere by Walking Shadow Theatre Company, an up-and-coming troupe that’s built a reputation for doing top-notch work with tricky, adventurous scripts. Since its New York debut in 2006, The American Pilot has been viewed as a loose allegory for America’s misadventures in Iraq. And it may be, but the play doesn’t take sides. Rather, it explores the precarious relationship between captor and captive, especially when everyone’s actions—whether violent or benevolent—are fueled by fear.

Walking Shadow was formed in 2004 by three young theatermakers—John Heimbuch, David Pisa, and Amy Rummenie—and has since become one of the most promising companies in town. The troupe specializes in doing new plays and regional premieres by such tricky playwrights as Naomi Iizuka (February’s 36 Views), the acerbic Neil LaBute, and the cocky, Chris Durang–influenced Noah Haidle (Mr. Marmalade). The 2007 production of LaBute’s Fat Pig, directed by Rummenie, was named one of the best productions of the year by the Star Tribune. It’s telling that Rummenie chose the play—it’s about a man who dumps his girlfriend because she’s fat—because she didn’t like it. “As a company,” she says, “we tend to look for the shadows between things. We love open-ended questions, so our work can lean toward the darker, more dubious, and abstract.”

The American Pilot, which Rummenie is also directing, is definitely an “open-ended question.” Its title, like Fat Pig, comes loaded with them: Is this a play about war? Terrorism? Anti-Americanism? Aspirations and fear? Is it patriotic? Unpatriotic? Neutral? It’s hard to say. Ambiguity is the name of the game.

“We chose The American Pilot because it hits you somewhere between hard and emotional,” explains Rummenie. “It’s about people having trouble communicating—it’s timely, but not ‘in your face’ political theater. ‘How do people relate? What is morally wrong? How do people represent their own countries?’ The playwright writes about lonely, isolated people who are somehow different from anyone else and are misunderstood or purposely manipulated by language. It’s a reversal of ‘The Other’ [mentality].”

The American Pilot clearly has political overtones, if only because the pilot is American and his captors seem to hate him for it. But the lack of overt political references means that audience members have to fill in the blanks themselves, according to their own perspective of current events. Indeed, the strength of the play is that it doesn’t moralize about America’s role in world affairs—it portrays the good and bad on both sides in equal measure, reducing the essential differences between them to matters of understanding and communication.

It’s a tense play, but Rummenie believes it’s ultimately about giving people the benefit of the doubt. “It’s not just about people being mean to each other,” says Rummenie. “It’s about how people’s actions have led them to their own undoing.” May 2–24. Minneapolis Theatre Garage, 711 Franklin Ave. W., Mpls., 612-375-0300