Ian Cheeseman meets the cast and real-life inspirations behind Come From Away, the poignant musical about kindness, resilience, and an unlikely love story forged during the chaos of 9/11.
Currently playing at The Lowry, this life-affirming show brings the heart warming tale of Gander, Newfoundland, to vivid life.
The night after I went to the Lowry in Salford to watch the Musical Come From Away, I got to meet some of the cast and the real people involved in the amazing true story of the little Canadian town and how it was inundated by thousands of stranded air travellers as a result of the events of 9/11. The Lowry is staging the Musical until January 5.
Diane & Nick Marson met during the four days they spent grounded in the Newfoundland town of Gander in 2001 and all flights were grounded due to the terrorist acts on the Twin Towers, in Washington and Pennsylvania. Their love story is at the heart of this wonderful Musical.
Diane, from Texas, and Englishman Nick, formed a bond that has proven to be unbreakable. As I sat and chatted to them in the Lowry’s Lyric Theatre, Diane told me, “We’ve seen this show over 150 times in various countries and every actor brings a part of themselves to the role and it just adds to the flavour of it; I love it. They say our words, they really use our conversations and how we felt at the time.”
Nick added, “Simple things like when I said I didn’t want to go and the screeching when Diane offered to marry me, is all very true. I really did buy two more beers. She did kiss me and she made the excuse that there was some turbulence. There wasn’t of course. I went to kiss her on her forehead because she was crying. Everything you see is true, they don’t have to make anything up.”
The actor playing Nick in the show, Daniel Crowder, says playing a real person, in such a powerful show, is a gift, “To see a middle romance develop on stage is quite different and it’s nice to play the romantic leads.” Kirsty Hoiles, who plays Diane, says that it’s rare for stories in theatre to not be centred around younger characters, “I think people really emotionally connect with it.
Their journey’s through the show are really beautiful and the way that they go from anxiety, about what was happening to them, to finding your family is fine and to then relaxing into that moment and allowing the romance to happen is brilliant to play.”
Diane summed up her feelings about the show perfectly when she said, “Our story is woven into this beautiful presentation of humanity with kindness, compassion and love.”
Diane and Nick held hands throughout my time with them and Nick says that there was a time when they felt guilty about their good fortune because it had happed during a time of real tragedy. “For years we were suffering from survivors guilt and it wasn’t until 2009 that we decided enough time had gone to share our story. This telling of our story is done correctly and not sensationalised. We wanted to share our time with these wonderful Newfoundland people. Most people don’t even know where Gander is, so this has brought them a spotlight that they fully deserve.”
I also got the chance to chat to one of the Gander residents, Bonnie Harris, who told me that they now get lots of tourists visiting their small isolated town and there are even performances of Come From Away during the summer months, “The number of tourists this last summer has been phenomenal. I’ve often asked myself why our town reacted like it did, welcoming in all these strangers. I think small communities are close knit and we’d all do it. We have harsh winters in Newfoundland and we’ve had challenging times, so we all had to help our neighbours. We’ve all been taught that as we grew up. My Grandmother, in particular, would give you everything she owned, if you needed it. My Mum was a baker and she loved to bake and she always gave away 75% of everything she made to people who needed it.”
It feels, to me, that our modern, cosmopolitan society is more insular. Would we all have helped 70 plane loads of strangers from all over the World, if they’d been left stranded on our doorstep? We could learn a lot from the people of Gander. The Musical is life affirming and uplifting. It also makes you think. I cannot recommend this show more highly. Go and see it if you can.
You can hear my interviews with the actors, and those they portray in Come From Away, on my weekly radio show Break-a-Leg which is broadcast on several radio stations including Oldham CR and Bolton FM.
Come From Away is showing at The Lowry in Salford until January 5th. For tickets, visit The Lowry’s website.