McKinven's show about “Plane People'” plays in Verona

Julie Druker | Nov 05, 2015

Trevor McKinven, who hails from North Hatley, Quebec, admits that one of the reasons he has been putting on his one-man show titled “They Came From Away”, for the last four years is because he is “a bit crazy”. “You definitely have to be a wee bit crazy to do this kind of thing because it is a lot of work and it takes a lot of energy. But I keep doing it because people continue to request it and as result, my tours have been getting longer and longer since I started performing the play four years ago.”

The show, which was created by and stars Mckinven, focuses on the events of September 11, 2001 and more specifically, on the crisis created by the closing of US air space following the attacks in New York and Washington.

One of the results of the crisis was that no fewer than 42 planes containing 6500 people from all over the world were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland that day. Newfoundlanders unhesitatingly rose to the occasion and opened their homes to these thousands of unexpected guests, the “Plane People”, displaying outstanding generosity and hospitality.

In the show, McKinven, who said he has a penchant for doing accents, has a field day playing characters from Italy, the southern United States, Brooklyn and more. He opens the show as Johnnie McDermott, an older Newfoundlander who tells of the event and his own unique history and take on the world. He speaks of the huge Gander airport, which was built for WW2 service but which following the war disappeared from the limelight like “meatloaf forgotten in the back of the freezer”. That changed when 911 happened.

With a perfect accent McKinven also plays an Italian from Florence named Giovanni Marino, who pokes fun at the differences between Italian and Newfoundland food while also mentioning Canada's famed music stars.

McKinven then transforms into Sherry, a “Hi Y'all”, southern belle from Georgia who talks her take on the event and later he takes the perspective of a Brooklyn firefighter, Frankie.

There are no sets, but McKinven more than makes up for that in his energy and enthusiasm for each persona he plays, with off-the-cuff one liners and his perfectly executed accents, which he has down spades.

McKinven did not experience the Gander events first hand, but rather had just landed in Scotland when 911 occurred. He said it was not until he returned to Canada two years later after traveling through Europe that he saw an opportunity. “I realized then that if I had been a fly on the wall in Gander, I could really do something with the situation. The fact that so many people from all over the world were gathered in this one place seemed absolutely amazing to me and so full of potential.”

He then set about writing 25 different monologues from the perspectives of various passengers, studying what their different takes might have been on the Newfoundland people, the place and their customs.

A few years later McKinven put on his first two showings of “They Came from Away” at the Piggery Theatre in North Hatley, Quebec to sold out audiences and was asked to extend the show for 10 more days. The rest, as they say, is history.

To date he has played in Sherbrooke and Montreal, Quebec, all over the Maritimes, and at various venues in the United States. After talking to a producer in New York he said he hopes to be heading there for a tour. Asked why the play appeals especially to audiences in smaller towns, McKinven said smaller communities tend to relate easily to the Gander situation. “The fact that thousands of people landed in a strange place, one they had never been to before and found it similar but also different from their own homes is what I think people find so interesting about the play. That and the fact that the Newfoundland people were so hospitable is what really hits people most.”

“They Came from Away” is a light-hearted look at a terrible tragedy, which like some tragedies, also included its own special silver lining, which shone so brightly in Gander, Newfoundland on that day.