The Nashville Rep at TPAC
Come to Come From Away
About 30% of the US population was born after September 11, 2001. I was born in the early 90’s, so I remember that day, but my memory is that of a child: our regular radio station’s DJs talking instead of playing music, staying home from school, my parents watching the same TV footage over and over again. I’d seen the Death Star blow up on that same TV, so I didn’t really get it, nor why our parents were so upset when me and my siblings got bored and started fighting over the Gameboy Color. The results of that historic tragedy are fresh in many lives. My uncle would have died in one of the towers were it not for a meeting’s last minute cancellation. Yet in the years since it would be hard for most of us to count how many mass casualty events have happened inside our country, from the Boston bombing to school shootings. Many of us haven’t grown up experiencing these events as something that would make the whole world pause, reflect, and honor the victims; now they’re instant ideological fodder.
9/11 was not only a tragedy, but a historical event that started wars and a whole new era. As the years pass, there will be more and more ways to impress the tragedy and importance of the event in newer generations: from visiting the memorial, watching the footage, and films and documentaries about the event and its political consequences. Come From Away stands out from those materials because it is about 9/11 from an outside vantage point: it doesn’t even take place in the US. While everything in the play happens because of the terrorist attacks, the entire is in Gander, Newfoundland and its immediate airspace. The focus isn’t terrorists or direct victims or first responders, but people at home and people traveling, and how they respond to the events.
Every event in Come From Away is based on a real event that the showwriters learned about by interviewing Gander residents. On what began as a regular Tuesday, the citizens of the rural town in Newfoundland heard the news of the attacks, then learned that US airspace was closed and so 38 planes were being sent to their airport. While t used to be one of the busiest airports in the world, longer range jets removed the need to refuel after the transatlantic flight. Gander had a population of roughly ten thousand people. Almost seven thousand stranded travelers unexpectedly arrived.
Anytime I’ve imagined being in a specific situation, I’ve focused on how it would actually go. Many people do this: we hold our breath when a character swims underwater in a movie. What would you do if you suddenly had thousands of needy travelers in your town? What if you were traveling and suddenly found yourself on a remote Canadian island and only had access to the clothes you were wearing and your carry-on bag? The show focuses on these details in order to reveal larger aspects of our humanity. In “28 Hours/ Wherever We Are” all the passengers, pilots, and flight attendants sing about their various experiences on different planes: some passengers have cell phones and learn what was going on, some are shown movie after movie while waiting in anxious ignorance, and another plane’s pilot gives them complimentary booze and they all get drunk.
So while it’s about 9/11, Come From Away is uplifting without being casual; it honors the victims and it honors all who were affected that day, both stranded travelers and generous hosts. It is funny and sincere, with fascinating moments. In “Darkness and Trees,” the local school buses transport the stranded travelers to various schools and impromptu shelters. One busload is full of African passengers, none of whom speak English. When the bus driver gets them to their wooded location late at night and uniformed Salvation Army volunteers approach, nobody wants to get off the bus. It looks like a military concentration camp. With the language barrier, the bus driver can’t explain until he has a brilliantly simple idea: he borrows a passenger’s bible. While he can’t understand a word of it, he can still find the book, chapter, and verse: Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything.” Then the passengers understand that they are being helped, not harmed. Another moment is when the Gander SPCA leader goes through the luggage holds of each plane to find all the animals being shipped, including a pregnant bonobo monkey.
This show is an ensemble piece. There is no one main character. Every actor plays two to four named roles, as well as ensemble bits. Some are momentary characters, and other roles recur throughout the piece. This ensemble nature of the play calls for actors who are quick and who can make each of their roles distinct. There are many rapid conversations between people, and the Nashville Rep cast is tight, their timing and collective chemistry effective. It’s difficult to single out anyone in the cast, they were all so good, so funny, and so compelling. I will say that Carrie Tillis as Beverly the pilot and Jennifer Jackson as Hannah the grieving mother were especially moving.
Now the interesting thing about this musical is that while the melodies and harmonies don’t wow me, the lyrics and musical transitions do. There are many characters and so many micro-settings with simultaneous and varied perspectives. Out of the 18 songs, 10 are simply credited to “Company.” All the transitions, the back and forth between so many different members of the company, are effective and accomplished because of the music that holds them together.
At TPAC’s Polk Theater (my favorite theater in the building), I saw opening night’s show. It’s about one hour and fourty-five minutes long, without intermission (probably my favorite length and format for a play too). The play is basically a black box play. There are simply too many settings and the scenes move too quickly for individual sets, but the props are numerous and good. The set is simple, somewhat similar to the filmed Broadway version, with lots of slatted wood. The back screen shows simple colors and the orchestra (which sounded great the night I saw them, if sometimes they were a bit louder than the singers). A large circle hangs down with a carving of Newfoundland with Gander marked with a red star, which is a distinctive touch that I prefer to the filmed version’s set design.
Come From Away’s North American Tour ended earlier this year, and it’s no longer on Broadway, so if you want a chance to see the live show, you should see it in Nashville this weekend. It’s an excellent choice by the Nashville Rep. It is a fun, engaging watch, all while honoring both the tragedy and the goodness of people all around the world.
Come From Away will be at TPAC’s Polk Theater through September 21st, and you should get tickets here.
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A Nashville native and MTSU graduate, Grace Krenz is a reader, a writer, and an arts enthusiast. She lives in Nashville with her husband and two children.
