ARTicles vol.4 i.4c: Charlie Victor Romeo

One hundred and three years after the Wright brothers made their first flight, we take air travel for granted. Businesspeople rack up frequent flier miles, six-year-old children fly alone from coast to coast, and lovers jet across the ocean for a weekend tryst. We nod off as flight attendants show how to buckle the seat belts, and how a seat cushion serves as a flotation device. Once in flight, we forget about oxygen masks and emergency exits and settle back for the movie. Flying is quick, and far safer than traveling by car. It’s an ordinary, everyday thing.

That is, until it isn’t.

Charlie Victor Romeo, a live performance documentary, dramatizes what happens when something goes wrong thousands of feet above ground. Derived entirely from the black box transcripts of six real aviation emergencies, the show explores how pilots – as professionals and as humans – deal with crisis. This peek behind the locked doors of the cockpit reveals how the people we trust with our lives face their own mortality.

After its 1999 debut at the Collective Unconscious Theatre in New York, Charlie Victor Romeo enjoyed an eight-month run and received two Drama Desk Awards. Filmed by the US Air Force as a training video for pilots, it is used to teach West Point cadets about human error. It has also generated interest from the medical community, who view the show to study the psychology of crisis. During Charlie Victor Romeo‘s initial run, nearly one-third of the audience consisted of aviation professionals.

The press’ response to the show has been overwhelming. Time comments that the show “turns mundane dialogue into a gripping found-art commentary on the battle between man and machine. If only reality TV were this good.” The Wall Street Journal claims that it “holds you in a hammerlock for 90 unforgettable minutes.” And Time Out NY declares, “no show in town can match its sheer intensity or hermetic artistic perfection.”

The A.R.T. and CRASHarts are delighted to present the Boston debut of this gripping docudrama. So, ladies and gentlemen, place your seat back in the full upright position and make sure that your seat belt is fastened tight around your waist. Charlie Victor Romeo‘s will not be an easy ride – we do expect some turbulence – but it promises to be a thought-provoking and riveting adventure.

Neena Arndt is a first-year dramaturgy student at the A.R.T./MXAT Institute for Advanced Theatre Training.

4-41