Stanley BFL CANADA stage to August 16, 2026
Tickets from $39 at 604-687-1644 or www.artsclub.com
Posted June 7, 2026
With Trump trumpeting – again – about Canada as the 51st state, the time is right for the Arts Club production of Come From Away. A homegrown musical with book, music and lyrics by Canadians Irene Sankoff and David Hein, it’s a feel-good musical that celebrates what we think of as Canadian values: friendliness, generosity, open-heartedness, hospitality, resilience and a jump-to-it-ness that come from one end of the country living in a deep freeze for months on end while the other end endures endless grey skies and rain.
Generally skeptical about ‘feel good’ or ‘heart-warming’ theatre I was nevertheless charmed by this production although sometimes – being Canadian– I was a little embarrassed about the tooting of our own horn. But perhaps, given the present political situation, tooting our own horn might be a survival tactic.
On September 11, 2001, in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on New York City’s Twin Towers, airspace over the entire US was shut down, stranding hundreds of planes and thousands of passengers all across the continent. Thirty-eight of those planes ended up at the Gander International Airport in Gander, Newfoundland and Labrador, suddenly doubling the population of some 7,000 souls. Passengers aboard those planes were held for hours – some for as long as twenty-eight hours with no information about what was going on. They could leave their seats but they could not leave the plane. The captain and crew knew about the disaster but didn’t let on; a few passengers had cellphones but there was no reception. One can only imagine the state of mind they were all in: angry, frustrated and frightened in a place where all they could see out the windows of the planes were “trees and rocks”. It wasn’t until all 6,600 travellers were ashore, with food and drink and a place to sleep, that they saw the shocking news on TV.
At the urging of a Sheridan College professor, writers Sankoff and Hein visited Gander in 2011, the tenth anniversary of the attack, stayed for a month and interviewed hundreds of people – townspeople as well as many of the passengers who returned to Gander for the anniversary. The writers explain that the characters in Come From Away are a “tribute” to real people but “not necessarily them.”
Twelve performers double as “the plane people” as well as Gander townspeople and all the roles are thoughtfully created, starting with Claude, the mayor of Gander (Andrew Wheeler) who tells us, “I starts my day at Tim Hortons”. But Wheeler also plays other roles including one of the American passengers being told to go and commandeer all the BBQs he could find in backyards. Expecting to be shot at, he found homeowners coming out to offer help.
The multi-casting makes it feel like there are many more characters on stage than there actually are; everyone plays at least two characters. There’s Bonnie (Caitriona Murphy) who rescues all the animals, including a pregnant bonobo chimpanzee about to give birth. Kevin (Vance Avery) and Kevin (Kamyar Pazandeh) are a gay couple who worry they will be unwelcome only to find the townspeople don’t give a fig about their sexual preference. Jocelyn Gauthier plays Beverley, the first female American Airlines pilot; Gauthier blows the roof off the Stanley with her song, “Me and the Sky”. Janet Gigliotti and Garett Ross are strangers Diane and Nick who fall in love; Charlie Gallant is Oz, the town cop, who jumps in and does just about everything including acrobatics. Stephanie Wolfe is Beulah, who runs the local Legion, and gives much-needed emotional support to Hannah (Lisa Michelle), whose son is a NYC firefighter. Janice (Daphne Charrois) is the reporter who breaks the news and Tenaj Williams is Bob, suspicious about all the generosity and fearing a huge bill being presented at the end of the almost week-long stay.
Not all the passengers stayed in Gander; many were transported by school bus to even smaller outlying towns where they were taken into people’s homes, schools and church halls. And many planes were diverted to larger towns and cities. Forty-seven were diverted to Halifax; thirty-four landed in Vancouver but with resources – like plenty of hotels and B and Bs to accommodate the passengers – those are different stories.
Director Ashlie Corcoran pulls together a super-talented cast drawn from the Vancouver theatre scene as well as from Edmonton as this production is presented in partnership with that city’s Citadel Theatre. Choreography by Gianna Vacirca features a lot of typical, rousing kitchen party stomping, and live music is provided by a seven-piece band under Ken Cormier, leader and keyboard. Set design by Lorenzo Savioni features a backdrop of eight or ten panels that turn to provide entrances and exits. Lighting designer Sophie Tang sends razor sharp neon-style lines streaking across the back wall like lights that illuminate airport runways.
There’s humour, there’s sorrow. There’s even a little romance. But mostly there’s a sense of pride that for five days a small Newfoundland and Labrador town showed the world what extraordinary kindness and hospitality a small Canadian town is capable of.
Inspired by and produced by Michael Rubinoff (an American lawyer, theatre producer and associate professor at Sheridan College in Oakville, Ontario) the first, non-professional production of Come From Away took place in 2013 at the college. However, after a successful run, Rubinoff was unable to find a Canadian producer and so the first professional production was at La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego. How Canadian is that, eh?
The rest is history: San Diego, Seattle, Washington, Toronto, Broadway, Canadian tour, North American tour, London’s West End.
Oh, Canada. Go on, toot your horn.