Come From Away – Joy in the midst of adversity
by Godwin Ifedi, Editor
Friday 23 August 2024
The Babs Asper Theatre at the National Arts Centre on Elgin Street was packed to the rafters on Friday night for the ground-breaking musical: Come From Away. The promo for this show read: This joyous musical shares the incredible real-life story of the 7,000 airplane passengers from all over the world who were grounded in Gander, Newfoundland in the wake of 9/11, and the small community that invited these ‘come from aways’ into their lives.
That doesn’t even begin to describe the incredible experience of reliving the events that led to what is now termed 9/11, that day of infamy in September 2001 when Islamic terrorists on a suicide mission, hijacked and slammed four commercial planes loaded with passengers into the towers of New York’s World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, killing nearly three thousand passengers. As a precautionary measure, other planes headed for New York and elsewhere were diverted to other airports in the USA and Canada. . On that fateful day, several planes landed in the little known town of Gander, Newfoundland, a place with a population of 9,000 people, which was suddenly trust with the responsibility of accommodating some 7000 stranded passengers.
The show portrayed first the shock, then consternation and finally acceptance by the residents of their new visitors, their kindness in the face of severe adversity and how they managed to contain their population which had practically doubled overnight with the arrival of the visitors. Most intriguing was the manner in which cast members morphed into different parts, one time playing the Mayor of Gander and in the very next frame, playing one of the stranded passengers. This transition was so smoothly undertaken that the audience hardly had time to catch their breath before the cast member reverted to their original role. The personae showcased included an Egyptian passenger who was under suspicion because of his “link” with the terrorists; a gay couple trying to hide their sexual orientation until they discovered some of the residents themselves were either gay or bisexual; a Jewish passenger who encountered a resident whose parents had been Jewish but had been hiding his religious upbringing from his family and neighbours. Each character seemed to have a story of their own, making for a show that was so entertaining, the audience was gasping for more when it reached the 100 minutes running time. A hopping jolly good time was had by all!
Come From Away was written by Tony® nominated Canadians Irene Sankoff and David Hein, and featuring Tony® winning direction by Christopher Ashley, Come From Away is the worldwide Best Musical winner, presented by David and Hannah Mirvish and NAC English Theatre.
