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A social evening, to the strains of Heave Away/Screech In as Nicholas Pound as the Mayor proceeds with the age old Newfoundland tradition of Kiss the Fish with Kirsty Hoiles as Diane and Daniel Crowder as Nick finding their piscatorial passion somewhat lacking Come From Away Wolverhampton Grand ***** So, here we have a musical with songs that are not going to bother the charts, in a tale about people you never heard of and will probably never hear of again, all in a place you are unlikely to ever visit or even want to – but it’s a tale you will never forget and it’s told in what is simply one of the best pieces of theatre for many a year. It is simply magnificent. This magical musical will grab you from its folksy opening number, Welcome to the Rock, which will have your foot tapping without you even knowing it and is a nod to the roots of Newfoundland, The Rock, as a former British colony with many settlers fishermen from the West of Ireland and Cornwall. You will laugh, and there will be a few tears, or at the very least a few lumps in the throat, but most of all, in a world sinking under the weight of conflict with its endless death and devastation, it shows us there is still hope for what humanity, could and should be. September 11, 2001. Most people can remember what they were doing when the news first broke of what was to become etched into the world’s conscience as 9/11. The people of Gander in Newfoundland certainly could and it is of them and six days in September rather than the terrible events in New York that became Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s wonderful musical. Gander, on Newfoundland, Canada, was once the largest airport in the world, although in reality it was little more than an aircraft service station. In the middle of last century aircraft didn’t have the range for direct flights from the USA to Europe, so Gander, 1,200 or so miles nearer to London than New York, was a refuelling stop in both directions. The advent of more efficient jets meant direct flights were possible and Gander’s importance diminished to a mainly regional and military airport and emergency landing for transatlantic traffic.
Sara Poyzer as Captain Beverley Bass, first female commercial pilot for American Airlines and the company's first captain. Her hopeful view of life now dimmed with Me and the Sky Come 9/11 though and the USA, fearing more attacks, closed its airspace and aircraft on route to the USA urgently needed to find a place to land. The authorities didn’t want to clog up real international airports, so . . . how about Gander? It had a long runway, could take jumbos and wouldn’t affect regular scheduled Canadian international and domestic flights. In a couple of hours 38 airliners and four military aircraft arrived at Gander, that’s around 7,000 passengers and crew in a town with a population of 11,800 and for six days they became guests in an act of mass kindness and generosity of spirit to warm the coldest and stoniest of hearts. Sankoff and Hein visited Gander in 2011 and spoke to both residents and the passengers who had returned for the tenth anniversary putting some recollections directly into the script and merging others into composite stories and it is that simple authenticity that shines through. An ensemble cast of just 12 give us townsfolk, passengers, crew, even George W Bush, in a whirl of costume and character changes, a hat here, a jacket there, different accents, different voices, different people and all the same actors. That quick change is carried through in the set from the wonderfully named Beowulf Boritt. It is a masterclass in simplicity with a boarded rear wall, flanked by tree trunks up into the flies with spotlights in lieu of branches and then 12 unmatched wooden chairs and a couple of unmatched tables which become aircraft seating, a schoolroom, school bus, bar, diner . . . whatever is needed. Scattered around is the brilliant ceilidh band under musical director AndrewCorcoran which gave us a penny whistle, fiddler and a bodhrán to add to the Irish flavour of the music. They even get a chance to let rip as a band in a stirring finale. Gander is a place where everyone knows everyone and we meet the mayor who has breakfast, a Pepsi, every morning at Tim Horton’s diner. There is an ongoing school bus driver’s strike, and usual small town tittle tattle. All that changes in a matter of a couple of hours and the arrival of 7,000 unexpected visitors. We have Kevin and Kevin, the gay couple, and Diane, the divorcee from Texas and Nick the unmarried and definitely unworldly wise Nick who fell for her after they were thrown together by fate. There is Hannah, a grandmother sent on holiday by her son, a firefighter in New York who she cannot contact. It’s no spoiler to know where that is going to find its sad end. She finds a lifelong friend in Beulah, whose son is a firefighter in Newfoundland. There is a rabbi and an Egyptian Muslim who everyone is wary of, not for who he is but what he is – condemned by his religion. Then one of the Kevins remembers an old hymn Make Me a Channel of Your Peace and starts singing in a soft tenor suddenly we have the rabbi singing in Hebrew, Hindu passengers and our Muslim praying. There are aircrew with friends flying that day, passengers desperate to contact family and Bonnie, who runs an animal shelter and defies antiterrorism directives to enter the holds of planes to feed water and eventually rescue animals in transit. With cold storage space full the local hockey rink becomes a walk in freezer, a group of cariologists on their way to a conference become toilet cleaners. Through it all are the moments of humour and the daunting logistics of feeding, accommodating, clothing and medicating a mass influx of people who have literally nothing more than what they wore in their planes. There are the worries and fears, the frustrations, the friendships and bonds created. And threaded through it all are some wonderful songs, beautifully written, always relevant, all of which take the story on and are an integral and glorious part of Come From Away. Then there is the art of old fashioned stage craft, inspired lighting by Howell Binkley, well balanced sound from Garth Owen and directed at a cracking pace by Christopher Ashley. As for the ensemble, everyone was a star, they all stood out and gave us a cast of thousands, excellent voices and carried us along in a feelgood whirl of heart over heartbreak. The superb cast, in alphabetical order, were Natasha J Barnes, Daniel Crowder, Mark Dugdale, Rosie Glossop, Amanda Henderson, Kirsty Hoiles, Oliver Jacobson, Dale Mathurin, Nicholas Pound, Sara Poyzer, Bree Smith, and Jamal Zulfiqar With Angeline Bell, Daniel Cane, Ashleigh Harvey, Alyn Hawke, Kathryn Pemberton and Kevin Yates as standbys. You might never know a soul mentioned in the show but you will remember every one of them. So come from wherever and head for the Grand where the planes will be parked to 09-11-24. Roger Clarke 05-22-24 Audiences are invited to bring along donations of new socks and underwear to performances of Come From Away, which will be passed on to the Good Shepherd based on Waterloo Road. Financial donations are also gratefully received in order to support the charity’s free-to-access support services. Good Shepherd |
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