"Tonight We Honour What Was Lost, But We Also Commemorate What We Found"

Sixteen months ago, when the world closed down, I had a conversation with some of my closest friends, about where we wanted to be the night that theatres reopened their doors. That first show needed to be big and it needed to be special. 
We couldn't have anticipated that it would take as long as it did to get there, but we all knew that the show we needed the most to "lead us out of the darkness" was the truly inspiring Come From Away.

It's a show that tells the story of ordinary people coming together in the face of a tragedy, which reflects what we've all been through in the last year and a half. It almost feels odd to say that you voluntarily want to sit through a show about a tragedy, but it truly did feel like the only way the catharsis and the healing could begin. We've been just existing for so long, and not really living, but it was tonight where we may have begun to finally start processing this time and what it has done to all of us.

The show itself was truly one of the greatest nights of my entire life.

As the lights went down, the audience erupted with a noise that I wasn't fully emotionally prepared to hear. I knew there was going to be a big reaction, but I don't think I could possibly have imagined quite how big it was going to  be. 1000 people screaming their faces off as 12 people walked on stage. It makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end just to think about it. The tidal wave of love we collectively threw at that stage was palpable. 

Pushing on through the opening number, I had to grab my friend's hand when we hit the line "you are here at the start of a moment". Because we were. A moment we had all waited for. And there we were.

And then, at the end of the number, the audience erupted once more, but this time to their feet. For almost a minute, we stood, cheered, screamed, cried and collectively let out our emotions as the enormity of where we were hit us. 

There are a few accent changes in the show - basically Jenna Boyd's passenger character is now a Scouser and it's the best thing in the entire world. But otherwise it's still the exactly same show as it always was, just now with an even deeper resonance than it had before. It was my first time seeing the second cast who took over in February 2020, and they are all doing a smashing job.

There are so many lines now that have a different meaning, that reflects the world we are currently living in. Proving the material transcends the moment it was written for, and is so universal.

There are people in your life who, when you meet them, you wonder how your life ever functioned without them. These are your people, and they will be there for you in the good times and the bad. These people were the ones I clung on to for 495 days, and who helped me to ride the storm. Through quizzes, film nights, and general nonsense24 hours a day, this lot are why I am still here.

I've never been more grateful to have such wonderful people in my life. Most of us met because of the theatre, but I don't think that I've ever been in the same room as them all at the same time. 

But Thursday was that day, where we all got to be in the same room at the same time.

It's been a long time since I saw a lot of people, and to be catching up at this show of all places was super emotional. Getting to hug people I haven't seen in a really long time (multiple years for some) was everything that I needed it to be. 

Because we come from everywhere, we all come from away 💛💙

I truly didn't believe that we'd actually get back into a theatre on Thursday. Even when I was stood in the auditorium, waiting for the show to start, I was convinced that something was going to go wrong. It's weird that we've been conditioned for so long now to expect everything to all go haywire.

But we are back. God knows for how long, but I'll be there enjoying wonderful nights at  the theatre for as long as we can.

"We all look the same, but we're different than we were"