Review: COME FROM AWAY at Texarkana Repertory Company

This year marks the 25th anniversary of 9/11, a day that forever changed our country and the lives of so many people around the world. For those of us who remember September 11, 2001, certain images and emotions never completely leave us. We remember where we were. We remember the fear and uncertainty. We remember watching the news and trying to comprehend what was happening.

But COME FROM AWAY reminds us of something else that happened during those frightening days.

It reminds us of the kindness.

Texarkana Repertory Company brings this incredibly moving musical to the Stilwell Theatre on the Texarkana College campus, where it continues through September 20. Directed by Michael Cooper, with Vocal Direction by Catherine Rickett, Scenic Design by Christopher A. Polson and Costume Design by Kaye Ellison, this production tackles a story that requires its ensemble to move almost continuously while creating an entire community and a multitude of characters.

Written by Irene Sankoff and David Hein, COME FROM AWAY is based on the remarkable true story of thousands of airline passengers unexpectedly diverted to Newfoundland after American airspace was closed on September 11. In the small town of Gander, ordinary people suddenly found themselves caring for thousands of strangers from around the world.

They opened schools, churches and community buildings. They found places for people to sleep, prepared food, gathered clothing, cared for animals and comforted frightened travelers who had no idea when they would be able to continue home.

That is where the beauty of COME FROM AWAY lives.

The musical takes a story born from unimaginable tragedy and fills it with a surprising amount of joy. There is grief, certainly, and the events of September 11 are never diminished, but this isn't simply a musical about 9/11. It is about what people did for one another afterward.

Director Michael Cooper has assembled an ensemble that understands that COME FROM AWAY isn't about one or two leading characters. The community is the star.

Austin Alford takes on Kevin T. and Garth, Rebekah Bokan plays Beverley and Annette, Anna Jo Briggs is Janice, Benjamin Gesselman portrays Kevin J. and Ali, Tom McElroy plays Bob, Josh Morriss takes on Nick and Doug, Chris Polson portrays Claude, Corrine Patterson plays Hannah, Catherine Rickett is Diane, Amanda Talbot portrays Bonnie, Michael Wells plays Oz, and Ruth Ellen Whitt takes on Beulah.

This ensemble evoked all the feelings from me. They made me laugh—a lot. They made me cry a little. But mostly, they made me want to take action and help others.

With performers portraying multiple people, COME FROM AWAY could easily become confusing, but this ensemble makes the character changes clear through shifts in voice, physicality, expression and costume pieces. The transitions happen so rapidly that there is rarely time to think about the mechanics. You simply follow them wherever the story takes you.

TexRep's production stands comfortably alongside other productions of COME FROM AWAY that I have seen, while the intimacy of the Stilwell Theatre gave me an experience all its own. I especially enjoyed sitting close enough to see the emotional details on the actors' faces. With so many stories moving quickly across the stage, those little reactions mattered. I could see worry, relief, confusion, joy and heartbreak register even when an actor wasn't the focus of the scene. These performers were acting every second they were onstage.

Rebekah Bokan gets one of the show's most powerful musical moments as Beverley with “Me and the Sky,” telling the story of a woman who dreamed of flying and worked her way into a world where women had once been told they didn't belong. The song celebrates achieving that dream before September 11 suddenly changes everything.

Corrine Patterson's Hannah carries a different emotional weight as a mother desperately waiting for information about her firefighter son. Patterson allows us to feel the helplessness of being safe in Gander while Hannah's heart and mind are thousands of miles away.

Ruth Ellen Whitt's Beulah becomes an important source of compassion for Hannah. Their connection is one of the quieter relationships in the show, but it beautifully demonstrates what the people of Gander offered beyond food and shelter. Beulah couldn't give Hannah the answers she desperately wanted, but she could listen, comfort her and make sure she wasn't facing those frightening days alone. Whitt brings a warmth to Beulah that makes those moments especially tender.

Benjamin Gesselman handles his moments as Ali with great respect and sensitivity. Ali's experience reminds us that the fear surrounding 9/11 affected people in different ways, including Muslim passengers who suddenly found themselves viewed with suspicion because of their faith. Gesselman doesn't overplay those moments. Instead, he allows the discomfort and hurt to speak for themselves, giving Ali a quiet dignity.

There is romance as well. Josh Morriss' Nick and Catherine Rickett's Diane find an unexpected connection in the middle of all the uncertainty, bringing sweetness and humor to the story. Their developing relationship is another reminder that even during extraordinary circumstances, life somehow keeps happening.

Anna Jo Briggs really embraces Janice's frazzled energy as the new reporter suddenly thrown into one of the biggest stories imaginable. She is still finding her footing in her job when Gander becomes the center of international attention, and Briggs makes Janice's attempts to keep up with everything happening around her delightfully funny.

Amanda Talbot brings plenty of heart to Bonnie, whose concern extends beyond the thousands of people suddenly arriving in Newfoundland to the animals trapped aboard the planes. While everyone else is scrambling to find food, shelter and supplies for the passengers, Bonnie refuses to forget that there are animals needing care as well. Talbot gives Bonnie a determined compassion that fits perfectly with the larger message of the show: if someone—or something—needs help, you help.

Tom McElroy also gets plenty of laughs as Bob, whose suspicion about the kindness being shown to him becomes increasingly funny. He keeps expecting there to be a catch, because surely strangers can't simply be this generous. Watching Bob slowly realize that the Newfoundlanders genuinely want nothing in return gives McElroy some wonderful comic moments while reinforcing one of the central ideas of the story.

Michael Wells brings his own personality and humor to Oz, helping establish the wonderfully quirky local flavor of Gander. Wells embraces the humor while remaining part of the constant movement that keeps the story racing forward.

COME FROM AWAY gives you permission to laugh during a story where you might not expect laughter to belong. I especially cracked up at Chris Polson's Claude and Austin Alford's Garth fussing over the ongoing bus strike. Here they are dealing with an everyday local dispute when suddenly 38 planes and thousands of unexpected visitors arrive, making that argument seem a whole lot different than it did before. Polson and Alford play those exchanges with great comic timing.

Alford also gets to show us a very different side of his performance as Kevin T. His experiences in Gander ultimately become an important part of the musical's message about what happens when receiving kindness inspires someone to pass it along. That journey becomes even more meaningful when we learn where the real Kevin Tuerff took that experience after leaving Newfoundland.

And through all these individual stories, the cast functions as one unit.

My favorite number of the evening was “Welcome to the Rock.” From the moment the ensemble launched into it, I was hooked. The rhythm, movement and personalities coming from every direction immediately pulled me into their world.

This wasn't a number where I wanted to watch just one person. My eyes kept moving around the stage because everybody was contributing something.

Then they brought “Welcome to the Rock” back at the end, and I loved watching the entire ensemble jump and land at exactly the same time. After watching these performers spend the evening moving together, changing characters and telling so many stories, that perfectly synchronized landing felt like an exclamation point on just how connected this ensemble was.

COME FROM AWAY is certainly entertaining—I laughed a lot throughout the evening—but it also helps keep this history alive. History isn't only about dates, places and numbers. It is about people. This production puts faces and stories behind those five days in Gander and tells a part of 9/11 history that younger generations may otherwise never know.

One of the passengers who experienced that generosity has spent the years since making sure the kindness he received didn't stop in Newfoundland.

The real Kevin Tuerff, whose experiences inspired Kevin T. in COME FROM AWAY, is encouraging theatres telling this story to spread the word about his nonprofit organization, Pay It Forward 9/11.

At the end of the performance, Austin Alford's Kevin T. shares how profoundly the kindness of the people of Gander affected him. To commemorate the anniversary of 9/11, Tuerff began closing his office for the day and giving each employee $100 to go out and perform a good deed for someone else.

That idea grew into Pay It Forward 9/11, a nonprofit that promotes acts of kindness and supports free social-emotional learning lesson plans and kindness activities for classrooms across America, encouraging children to become catalysts for positive change. For more information, visit their website at https://www.payitforward911.org/. 

Texarkana Repertory Company's COME FROM AWAY continues through September 20 at the Stilwell Theatre on the Texarkana College campus. Tickets are dangerously close to selling out, so head to their website at www.texrep.org before you miss the plane. 

Reader Reviews

To post a comment, you must register and login.