Come From Away Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh 17th September 2024 Review
Come From Away is at The Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh from Tue 17 - Sat 21 September and it is, I think, fair to say that this production is breaking many people’s perceived ideas of what a stage musical can be, both in its subject matter and its production style.
This show has already won four Olivier awards (including Best New Musical) and the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical on Broadway, and this is not surprising as the show is based on a real incident that saw humanity both at its worst and its best, and such a contrast always makes for a great story in the hands of the right creative people. Here, in this production, Irene Sankoff and David Hein (book, music and lyrics) were clearly the right people to tell this story and bring it to the stages of the world.
As an audience, we all have the benefit of viewing the events in “Come From Away” with historical hindsight, but when over 6,000 airline passengers were without warning or explanation diverted to Canada’s Gander International Airport in remote Newfoundland, they had no idea (to start with) that international air space was being shut down due to terrorist attacks in the USA which saw commercial airline flights full of passengers turned into missiles of mass destruction. This event was one of many in the immediate aftermath of what we now call the 9/11 attacks in which emergency protocols were brought into action by the Canadian government in a far wider operation named “Operation Yellow Ribbon”. In effect, all commercial airlines about to enter (or which had the potential to enter) Canadian and USA air-space were now treated as potential terrorist and bomb threats.
The town of Gander only had a population of around 10,000 people so the operational logistics of working alongside neighbouring towns to accommodate over 6,000 people and their often complex religious, dietary, medical, and social needs was on an unprecedented scale, but the people of Gander (and elsewhere) more than rose to this challenge by opening their homes and their hearts to any newcomers, providing whatever they could, whenever they could.
Come From Away is based on these events and some of the principal people involved are depicted on-stage whilst others are composites of the many people that were a part of this small piece of history. This production is a true ensemble one. There are no real principal stars here as everyone performs multiple roles here, but Nicholas Pound (Claude), Natasha J Barnes (Janice), Daniel Crowder (Nick), Mark Dugdale (Kevin), Holly Ann Butler (Bonnie), Amanda Henderson (Belulah), Angeline Bell (Hannah) and Kirsty Hoiles (Diane) do need a mention here for their principal roles.
There are so many stories to be told here, and although there is never a gap in the narrative, spoken, or sung, I wanted to know more of their stories; with a performance time of only 1 hour 40 minutes, without interval, this does seem at times too short a window to do this in effectively. Yes there is a lot going on here, a lot of really nice personal stories being told, some of which are only resolved once everyone gets back home, but there is that feeling at times of trying to do too much and not allowing for quieter moments, allowing for contemplative silence of the enormity of what has just happened. Sometimes “Come From Away” just needs to slow down, or stop for a moment, and take in a deep breath.
On the positive side (and there are many to this show), everyone on stage is well cast and delivers believable performances. Keeping track of who they are can prove a little challenging at times though. What really works here is that there are no obvious heroes, here everyone is so ordinary and that is where this story draws all of its strength from, ordinary people doing extraordinary things when faced with really big challenges in their life.
Musically this work has so much to commend as here the basics of counterpoint, harmony and melody have clearly been understood by its creators and often the very unpretentious performance style of the music masks just how well-crafted it really is. An often very discreet live band also adds much to the musical score of this show.
Come From Away was not the show that I was expecting to see tonight; it was a surprise, but a good one.
One little note to this review, in keeping with the spirit of kindness to others that this show highlights, Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh would like people to know that they are “supporting the charity Edinburgh Food Project this week. We will have a foodbank donation station in our Box Office where audience members can drop off items to donate to the foodbank on their way to see the show”.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com
This show has already won four Olivier awards (including Best New Musical) and the Tony Award for Best Direction of a Musical on Broadway, and this is not surprising as the show is based on a real incident that saw humanity both at its worst and its best, and such a contrast always makes for a great story in the hands of the right creative people. Here, in this production, Irene Sankoff and David Hein (book, music and lyrics) were clearly the right people to tell this story and bring it to the stages of the world.
As an audience, we all have the benefit of viewing the events in “Come From Away” with historical hindsight, but when over 6,000 airline passengers were without warning or explanation diverted to Canada’s Gander International Airport in remote Newfoundland, they had no idea (to start with) that international air space was being shut down due to terrorist attacks in the USA which saw commercial airline flights full of passengers turned into missiles of mass destruction. This event was one of many in the immediate aftermath of what we now call the 9/11 attacks in which emergency protocols were brought into action by the Canadian government in a far wider operation named “Operation Yellow Ribbon”. In effect, all commercial airlines about to enter (or which had the potential to enter) Canadian and USA air-space were now treated as potential terrorist and bomb threats.
The town of Gander only had a population of around 10,000 people so the operational logistics of working alongside neighbouring towns to accommodate over 6,000 people and their often complex religious, dietary, medical, and social needs was on an unprecedented scale, but the people of Gander (and elsewhere) more than rose to this challenge by opening their homes and their hearts to any newcomers, providing whatever they could, whenever they could.
Come From Away is based on these events and some of the principal people involved are depicted on-stage whilst others are composites of the many people that were a part of this small piece of history. This production is a true ensemble one. There are no real principal stars here as everyone performs multiple roles here, but Nicholas Pound (Claude), Natasha J Barnes (Janice), Daniel Crowder (Nick), Mark Dugdale (Kevin), Holly Ann Butler (Bonnie), Amanda Henderson (Belulah), Angeline Bell (Hannah) and Kirsty Hoiles (Diane) do need a mention here for their principal roles.
There are so many stories to be told here, and although there is never a gap in the narrative, spoken, or sung, I wanted to know more of their stories; with a performance time of only 1 hour 40 minutes, without interval, this does seem at times too short a window to do this in effectively. Yes there is a lot going on here, a lot of really nice personal stories being told, some of which are only resolved once everyone gets back home, but there is that feeling at times of trying to do too much and not allowing for quieter moments, allowing for contemplative silence of the enormity of what has just happened. Sometimes “Come From Away” just needs to slow down, or stop for a moment, and take in a deep breath.
On the positive side (and there are many to this show), everyone on stage is well cast and delivers believable performances. Keeping track of who they are can prove a little challenging at times though. What really works here is that there are no obvious heroes, here everyone is so ordinary and that is where this story draws all of its strength from, ordinary people doing extraordinary things when faced with really big challenges in their life.
Musically this work has so much to commend as here the basics of counterpoint, harmony and melody have clearly been understood by its creators and often the very unpretentious performance style of the music masks just how well-crafted it really is. An often very discreet live band also adds much to the musical score of this show.
Come From Away was not the show that I was expecting to see tonight; it was a surprise, but a good one.
One little note to this review, in keeping with the spirit of kindness to others that this show highlights, Playhouse Theatre Edinburgh would like people to know that they are “supporting the charity Edinburgh Food Project this week. We will have a foodbank donation station in our Box Office where audience members can drop off items to donate to the foodbank on their way to see the show”.
Review by Tom King © 2024
www.artsreviewsedinburgh.com