JOHN NATHAN
Phoenix Theatre
SOON AFTER two airliners slammed into the Twin Towers on 9/11, and another into the Pentagon, America shut down its airspace for the first time in its history. All planes heading to the country had to be diverted, and 38 of them, with 7,000 people on board from all over the world ended up in the isolated town of Gander, Newfoundland.
What followed is well captured by Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s awardwinning American musical.
Set to a folky score that, at its most energetic, has the feel of a beery hoedown, this show gives the good people of Gander the recognition they deserve for what was undoubtedly an epic act of hospitality. In Christopher Ashley’s unfussy production, the British, 12-strong ensemble cast do a sterling job as both the disorientated travellers and their earthy, big-hearted hosts.
Among the former, is a London rabbi who counsels a Polish-born local man, a refugee from the Holocaust, about his belatedly recognised Jewish identity. Then there is Ali the Egyptian, viewed with deep suspicion by his fellow travellers. He is played by Jonathan Andrew Hume who typifies the cast’s mercurial role-switching when his Ali becomes insecure, gay Kevin from LA.
At its best, Come From Away conveys how one corner of the planet became a sanctuary for people of all backgrounds, who for a few days lived peacefully cheek-by-jowl in exactly the way those who carried out the mass murder would hate. But nagging constantly is an awareness that the real drama and story about 9/11 is happening elsewhere.