There's no fighter jet on stage, but there is a war — fought from a beige cubicle with a coffee cup and a mouse. Grounded, George Brant's acclaimed solo play, is now running at Scarlette Theatre in Bangkok, and it's one of the more unexpected theatre tickets in the city this season.

The play follows a female fighter pilot who, after becoming a mother, is reassigned to operating armed drones from a command screen thousands of miles from any battlefield. She once flew F-16s; now she tracks targets through a screen by day and goes home to her family by night. The psychological squeeze of that setup — killing remotely, then kissing a child goodnight — is what gives the play its punch, and the ending lands hard when she steps away from the controls and the war follows her home.

The Bangkok production runs 100 minutes with a single performer: Marain Poom, an acting coach on Trip eurAcademy 2026 who also completed her Master's degree playing this very role at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Arts. She returns to the part years later, now also known to TV audiences as a trainer on a reality show, with what the production describes as a changed perspective and a changed world to play to.

Directing is Jaa Phantachat, a Slapalliporn artist and co-founder of B-Floor Theatre, one of Bangkok's best-known experimental companies. In her staging, the pilot's story doubles as a question about how much of modern life is now watched and lived through screens — which is precisely why a war play from 2013 still feels uncomfortably current.

For travellers, this is a good excuse to build an evening around Bangkok's small-theatre scene rather than the usual rooftop bars. Scarlette Theatre's venue, T. Nam Charoen Playhouse, sits on Phaharat Rat Sai 1 near Bang Pho, an area of the city most visitors never see. Performances run Friday to Sunday until 1 November, with 7.30pm shows on Fridays and Saturdays and a 5pm Sunday matinee. Tickets are 970 baht, or 600 baht for students — reasonable by international theatre standards, and a fraction of what a West End or Broadway solo show would cost.

If you're in Bangkok between mid-October and early November and want a night of Thai-independent theatre with an international script, book ahead: solo shows in intimate venues tend to sell out. Bang Pho is also handy for a riverside dinner before or after the curtain.