Come From Away (London) review

Have you ever got to the end of a book, or a film, or a video game, or a show, and felt like you’ve been on such a journey that you’re not the same person any more? It isn’t hyperbole to say that’s how I felt after seeing Come From Away. So much so that I’ve been inspired to write a review – even though I hate writing reviews – because I need to try and work through my feelings. It hasn’t escaped me that the idea of going through a lot in a short space of time and feeling completely changed at the end of it is one of the themes of the show, so it’s cleverly done to make the audience (or me, anyway) feel that way too.

So, the show. Come From Away is the winner of 4 Olivier awards including Best New Musical, and absolutely deserves every single one of them. It’s always reassuring to come out of an Olivier-winning show and think yes, they absolutely got it right when they gave that award. (Denise Gough, who won Best Actress in a Play for People, Places and Things was another one; I came out of the theatre almost speechless, but so in agreement that she deserved that award.)

It was 9/11 which brought the story into being. After the attacks, US airspace was closed. Planes bound for America were diverted elsewhere until such a time that each plane could be checked and confirmed not to be a threat. Many planes were taken in by airports in Atlantic Canada, including Halifax in Nova Scotia, St John’s in Newfoundland and Labrador, Moncton in New Brunswick, and Gander in Newfoundland and Labrador. And it’s the events in Gander, as thousands of displaced travellers arrived in a town of less than 10,000 people, that the musical focuses on. As the show’s own website describes it, it tells ‘the incredible real-life story of the 7,000 air passengers from all over the world who were grounded in Canada during the wake of 9/11, and the small Newfoundland community that invited these ‘come from aways’ into their lives’.

There are no surprises in the basic premise of the show. It’s laid out very quickly on the website and in the displays in the theatre – thousands of people came to Gander, stayed for a little while, and then they were able to fly back to where they needed to be. The magic and the power of the show lies in the human stories and interactions. (That summary gives nothing away, but from here on in, there may be spoilers!)

The longer I think about it, one of the reasons it was so emotional for me is that it really showed that ‘Blitz spirit’ you hear about in the war, but this didn’t happen over 50 years ago, it happened within my lifetime. That type of kindness and generosity and sheer, devastatingly pure altruism is alive and well today when adversity comes a-knocking.

Full disclosure here: I always cry at war stuff, when people come together to help each other. You can see where I’m going with this. I fully expected to cry solidly for the entire show.

And yes, I did get super super emotional (the only reason I didn’t cry is that I’ve mostly mastered the art of getting upset by shows but not actually crying). It’s unavoidable that there are going to be upsetting stories in the show – people whose family members were in New York, possibly unaccounted for or uncontactable, airline staff whose friends and colleagues could have been on the planes which went down, and people desperate to get back to their families, in the days before the ubiquity of mobile phones and 4G, 3G, or any G, actually. It has huge potential to be just an hour and a half of misery. But the show manages to add in humour and warmth in absolute bucketloads, without ever being disrespectful or trivialising the emotions people were going through.

One of the sections from the opening number (Welcome to the Rock) sums up the the mood of the whole show for me:

Welcome to the land where the winters tried to kill us.
And we said we will not be killed!

Welcome to the land where the waters tried to drown us.
And we said we will not be drowned!

Welcome to the land where we lost our loved ones.
And we said we will still go on!

Welcome to the land where the wind tried to blow.
And we said no!

Having mentioned that, it seems an opportune time to add in a video of the cast performing that number at the Oliviers, so here it is:

The cast are absolutely incredible. Rachel Tucker’s talent goes without saying; I’ve been a fan of her since she was on I’d Do Anything over 10 years ago and she’s only got more and more talented since then. It was an absolute joy to see her on stage again after so long (the last time was Wicked in probably around 2011). Clive Carter was absolutely fantastic too, although I’m ashamed to say despite his long list of credits I’d not heard of him til now. We didn’t get an understudy sheet, but if memory serves, from what I saw on the screen in the foyer, we had four understudies. I couldn’t say who they were, not having any record of their names, but it was impossible to tell – everyone gave it absolutely 100% and smashed it. They had so much infectious energy (and stamina!), and their switching between their ‘Newfoundlander’ role and their ‘come from away’ role (as every actor had one of each), sometimes just by putting on or taking off a scarf or a jacket, was flawless. Not to mention remembering which accent to be doing it any one time!

I can’t finish without first mentioning the end of the show. I’d read that it was playing to standing ovations every night so I was fully expecting that, but the actual experience of it was so much more . Typically when I’ve been to a show that’s got a standing ovation, people tend to get to their feet quite slowly, and more and more get up when they see others doing it. At Come From Away, it felt like the theatre was pulled to its feet en masse through sheer emotion. A full-house standing O is really special at any show, but without a doubt this one was the most emotional and special one I’ve ever been part of. And as if it couldn’t get any better, the whole audience then gets to stay on their feet as the fabulous band plays the outro (‘Screech Out’ the OST reliably informs me).

I typically avoid like the plague any show that’s likely to make me cry a lot, so it was a risk seeing Come From Away. But honestly, I’m so incredibly glad that I did (it’s now my dream to see it in Canada, where I think it would be even more emotional!). In fact, I’ve just booked another trip to London, in no small part so I can make another trip to The Rock. I can’t wait!

💙💛 Go and book tickets now!! 💙💛

My top 20 favourite Vines

This is probably the most millennial post ever: a list about Vines.

Full disclosure, I never used Vine when it was a thing – and I’m really sad that I didn’t, because clearly it was a goldmine of funny videos. Fortunately, there’s still a massive archive of Vines on YouTube (god bless that wonderful site), and I watch them more often than I care to admit.

Obviously having not used Vine at the time, I can’t be 100% sure that these all originated on there, but I don’t think anyone is going to get picky about it!

Sunny sunny London

This month has been, without exaggeration, possibly the worst month of my life. And because this is my blog, I’m gonna share the reasons why here.

After being in intense pain for days and doctors three times being unable to diagnose anything actually wrong, I had a blood test and got a phone call four hours later telling me to go to A&E immediately, because I had a massive infection and needed IV antibiotics.

Fast forward 24 hours (which let me tell you did not seem to go ‘fast’ in any way, shape, or form, due to being unable to eat and drink the entire time), and I was having an operation to deal with a rather large abscess. In fact, the doctor said it was the worst he’d seen in six years! Which would explain why for the preceding days I’d been unable to sit, stand, walk, or even really lie down without being in huge amounts of pain.

The upshot of that whole fiasco was me being signed off work for a month, and also having to cancel lovely Edinburgh and London holiday plans (losing a lot of money in the process), because I had to be within reach of my GP surgery to get my dressings changed every 24 hours.

So, a pretty shit time all round, I think you’ll agree.

Fortunately, I did manage to get to London for the briefest time, and the sky was blue and flowers were out in force in Covent Garden. So here are a few photos I managed to get, while also trying to dodge sunburn and sunstroke (plus bonus photos of St Pancras Renaissance Hotel which is the hotel of my dreams).

 

 

 

 

 

 

Somehow I’m addicted to Goat Simulator

Goat Simulator. How do I even begin to describe Goat Simulator?

First of all, let me reassure you that this isn’t a joke. It really is a game where you get to experience being a goat (because I know that’s something on everyone’s bucket list)! I say ‘experience’ in the loosest sense, because honestly, I have a sneaking suspicion that it’s not all that realistic.

For a start, goats aren’t usually known for climbing up cranes, bouncing around in low gravity testing facilities, jumping 50ft in the air on trampolines, dragging people or items around with their tongues, or soaring through the air with jet packs attached to their back (and thank god for that)! They do, however, jump over stuff and headbutt people and probably cause a fair amount of damage, so at least that’s realistic.

Dragging a human with me with my tongue as I climb a wind turbine

So, the game. You play as a goat (I may have given that away already), and once you’ve done various quests you can unlock mutators ranging from the useful, like double jump, to the eyebrow-raisingly ridiculous, like ‘tall goat’ (a giraffe) or ‘classy goat’ (a penguin).

There isn’t really an objective to the game. It mostly seems to just be about having fun causing as much chaos as possible – my personal favourite entertainment is headbutting vehicles and gas cannisters to blow them up, sending the goat flying across the map. If it sounds stupid, well, it is. But it’s also infuriatingly addictive.

Goat Simulator is described by Coffee Stain Studios as ‘a completely stupid game and, to be honest, you should probably spend your money on something else, such as a hula hoop, a pile of bricks, or maybe pool your money together with your friends and buy a real goat.’ – and they’re the people who made it, for goodness’ sake!

Dragging a bicycle with my tongue as I climb a crane

The game does have some quests, or objectives, like spending a certain amount of time in the air or walking on your front legs, and both the PlayStation and Steam versions have trophies too (I’m playing the Steam version). One of those trophies is to collect little golden goat statues hidden in various places in the two areas (Goatville and Goat City Bay, where there are around 30 trophies in each), which is something fun to do even if you’re not trophy-hunting as such. Perhaps unsurprisingly, some of them aren’t easy to get – one is balanced on a power line which is many many feet up in the air, requiring you to fly up in the gust from an extractor fan, and hope upon hope that you can land on the line and balance long enough to walk up to the statue, or else smash into it with a flailing body part as you fall back to earth. To say it’s frustrating is something of an understatement!

A close-up of the goat

I can’t in good faith go any further in the review without addressing the elephant (goat?) in the room. The controls have a bit of a life of their own, and the graphics aren’t what you’d get in a hugely produced game like Overwatch or Call of Duty. But honestly, that’s what makes it so great to play – it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and there are all sorts of funny things you can do while you’re playing it. It’s great and hilarious entertainment.

Apparently I’d eaten some mushrooms that I shouldn’t have

Goat Simulator is available on the Switch, PS4, XBOX, Steam, iOS and Android, so there are a whole bunch of different ways to achieve your dream of living the life of a goat! Like many of the great games I’ve played, I discovered this one when I saw Markiplier playing it, so his channel is a great place to start to watch some gameplay. I hope you decide to buy it too, and enjoy your goaty adventures!

On top of a crane, because that’s the natural place to find a goat

Goat on a slide

Coloured houses in Halifax

I wanted to see coloured houses in Halifax, and it didn’t disappoint!  There wasn’t as much time for house-spotting as I’d have liked, due to the ridiculous rainy weather making it very hard to get photos without risking damage to my phone or camera, but I made the best of a bad situation.

In honesty, I spent most of my time fangirling over the public gardens, but that’s coming in a different post!

So here are the houses I spent my time making heart eyes at in Halifax…