In light of the disappearance of Malaysian Arlines flight MH370 (and a dozen other airline tragedies where we watch the headlines unfold the narrative), we’ve all tried to imagine what happened and what it was like. Charlie Victor Romeo sheds a horrifying light on the scenarios in the cockpit when things go terribly wrong. Charlie Victor Romeo was initially a stage play that, in 1999, proceeded to run for eight sold-out months in a small theater on the Lower East side of New York City. The play took the black box recording of six real airplane tragedies and acted them out, using the dialogue verbatim. Fifteen years later, the same people responsible for the stage play have brought the experience to the big screen. And what an experience it is. Because the dialogue is taken directly from the cockpit voice recorder, this is a script that could not be written from the imagination, full of the technical jargon, fear, and rational of professionals functioning on overdoses of adrenaline. A mash-up of drama and documentary, Charlie Victor Romeo is one of the most gripping movies of the year.
Charlie Victor Romeo screens Monday, June 2 and Tuesday, June 3 at 7:00 and 9:00pm. Advanced tickets are available at www.trylon.org with no service charge.