THE AMERICAN PILOT
by David Greig
Directed by Colin Macnee

Wednesday 28 to Saturday 31 October
8pm, Saturday Matinee 2.30pm

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The North Wall Arts Centre
South Parade
Oxford
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This acclaimed, thought-provoking black comedy, kicks off Oxford Theatre Guild’s autumn season of work. Commissioned by the Royal Shakespeare Company, it is the work of David Greig, whose latest RSC project Dunsinane opens next year in London.

When a US Air Force pilot crash lands into a remote community caught up in a long civil war, his dramatic arrival has an impact on individual lives. The idealist, the leader, the opportunist, the pragmatist, and the romantic – the pilot means different things to each one, and each tries to make sense of the irreversible change brought about by this alien being.

The play uses black comedy and lyrical language as it explores the detail of small lives twisted and turned by the actions and culture of a remote, dominant nation and looks at the complex relationship between this one global superpower and the rest of the world. Using a witty lightness of touch, this is neither a pro- nor an anti-American tirade, but an exploration of the stories behind the bombings of wedding parties and suicide missions in crowded market places, the stories of real people whose tragedies briefly make the headlines and are then forgotten. It also reminds us of what so many hostages face at the hands of their captors – they are pawns to political zealots and black market traders alike.

The pilot has bailed out of his plane as it crashes. With his leg badly smashed he is rescued by a local farmer who is just trying to do the right thing. Held in the farmer’s barn the pilot becomes the allegorical centre of a tale that could be set in any number of war zones; Bosnia, Afghanistan, Darfur. Drawing on any number of conflicts from the last twenty years the playwright introduces the characters according to what they do (Farmer, Captain, Trader, Translator) and develops the drama from the differing responses of the villagers to the disturbing presence of the American.

The Farmer, trying to hold his family and farm together in a country besieged by never-ending civil war, finds the Pilot's presence unsettling, and feels that the sooner he is gone from his home the better. His received wisdom about the USA makes him feel the need to condemn it as a country where the people have fabulous riches, but are "also devils who have no respect for women. . . and go around the world encouraging all kinds of debasements and wickedness." His unease is shared by his practical and God-fearing wife Sarah but not by his young daughter Evie, who's not only smitten with the Pilot but sees him as a heaven-sent messenger to bring hope to her life and that of her countrymen.

For the Trader, who is also a minor local official, the Pilot is, as with everything else, a business opportunity. His loyalty is to the profit margin, and to that alone.

The Captain, a weary guerrilla fighter, poses the greatest danger to the wounded man. Though expected to be in charge, he faces a dilemma over how to treat the man with whom "in another world" he might have been friends. His Translator's student experience in the USA has left him confused and resentful of its riches and power, but more personally he has suffered a dreadful loss from ‘collateral damage’ in a mistaken US missile attack. The distrust and love-hate attitude to America and, by extension, the Pilot is fed by a view of America absorbed through personal experience, hearsay and television.

The shocking, but perhaps inevitable end, is predicted by the Captain when the Farmer asks for an explanation of what is happening in his house: "America has happened . . . You may as well have picked up a stone and found yourself with a handful of uranium."

After a successful run at Stratford in 2005 the play opened in London and then New York. Scot David Greig’s other commissions have come from the National Theatre and The Royal Court Theatre, and he currently works for the National Theatre of Scotland. Still only just 40, and nominated for several prestigious awards, his many plays are performed all around the world.

Colin Macnee, director of The American Pilot, is an enthusiast for Greig’s work. "This play is beautifully written and in one scene can be comic, chilling, and poignant. For me, it weaves together many themes - contemporary power clashes and their effects on ordinary people, globalisation of a single culture displacing the local and traditional, theatrical and biblical storytelling - but all through very real people faced with tough decisions."