A week the world stood still

One of the most remarkable things about the second week of September 2001 is just how isolated we were those 15 short years ago. Facebook and Twitter didn't yet exist, and relatively few people had cell phones. Amid the events of September 11, a tiny Canadian community on the edge of the continent unexpectedly became a haven for 7,000 people from around the world as 38 airplanes were diverted there from U.S. airspace. New bonds of community and understanding were forged as the Newfoundlanders opened their homes to guests from around the globe.

Come From Away is the new musical about that week in Gander, Newfoundland, co-presented by La Jolla Playhouse and Seattle Repertory Theatre. Its Seattle Rep run has been extended through Dec. 20. I landed one of the last remaining single seats for Sunday's matinee and enjoyed every minute of the brisk 100-minute show. 

Show creators Irene Sankoff and David Hein are marvelous reporters. They spent a month in Newfoundland in September 2011, interviewing the townsfolk plus "plane people" and pilots who returned for the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks. ("We talked to hundreds of people and came back with thousands of stories," Sankoff told Shirley Fishman in notes for the Seattle Rep playbill.) From this mass of source material, they weave stories both poignant (people from many faiths pray together for peace) and hilarious (as some of the guests become honorary Newfoundlanders by downing a shot of "screech" and kissing a cod). 

Two stories especially resonated with me: that of Beverley Bass, the first female captain for American Airlines, and of Colin, one of the visitors who -- we later learn -- marks the anniversary of 9/11 each year by paying back (and forward) some of the generosity he experienced on "the Rock." But there's a story and a song in here for everyone, along with some hope that, even (or perhaps especially) amid tragedy, we can all get along.