Theatre reviews: Come From Away | Wolves at the Door | Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me

Wolves At The Door, Oran Mor, Glasgow ★★★★

Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me, Tron, Glasgow ★★★★

Whether we’re interested in history or not, it has a way of coming to find us; and that was never more true than for the people of the quiet Newfoundland town of Gander, on the morning of 11 September, 2001. The smash-hit musical Come From Away tells the story of how - as the shocking events of 9/11 unfolded - Gander, always home to a large airport, suddenly became the destination for dozens of diverted transatlantic flights, carrying more than 7,000 frightened and disorientated passengers.

Played out over 100 fast-paced minutes, without an interval, Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s powerful musical - acclaimed on Broadway and in the West End since 2015 - offers a brief but passionate outline of the whirlwind experience of those few days, focussing on a few key personalities among the townsfolk, and on the passengers on one American Airlines flight.

The character sketches are rough-and-ready, with every member of the 12-strong cast doubling and trebling in multiple roles; yet somehow, these thumbnail cameos emerge with huge vividness, along with a strong sense of the background rush of activity in the community, as people strive to provide the travellers with everything they need, including - most of all - information.

Key to this achievement, of course, are the show’s brilliant song and dance numbers, including superb ensemble pieces that conjure up the sheer strangeness and energy of those few days that changed so many lives; and with a terrific ten-piece band also taking part in the action, Christopher Ashley’s fine production emerges as an unforgettable tribute to the huge resilience and generosity of communities the world over, not least those that live “on the edge” of our busy and atomised urban world.

In Jack Hunter’s new Play, Pie And Pint show The Wolves At The Door, by contrast, history catches up with the hero Daniel in the form of Britain’s current cost of living crisis. Out of work and separated from his wife and beloved daughter, Daniel is living a hand to mouth existence in a damp and chilly flat when functionaries from “Caledonian Power” arrive with a warrant to break into his home, and install a pre-payment electric meter.

What follows is an achingly funny and occasionally tragic three-way conversation between Daniel and his “visitors”, a kindly older woman electrician, and her team leader Marc, a young man radicalised by his work into brutally cold-hearted attitudes; and over a brief 50 minutes, The Wolves At The Door emerges as a clever and hugely entertaining alarm-bell of a play about the way we live now, and the ways in which harsh and unforgiving times begin to change us all.

And then, as a gorgeous coda to the week, there is Ben Harrison’s Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me, a meditation on growing up in the 1980s in which he and singer-composer-musician David Paul Jones revisit the music of that time - The Smiths, Sting, Madonna - and reflect on how it reached into their troubled teenage lives.

Over 70 minutes, the two sing, chat, and recall their very different small-town experiences, in Ayrshire and Norwich. And out in the audience, we also find ourselves reflecting on how the world has changed, since 1984; and how popular culture and music, at its best, has not only driven and reflected that change, but also supported us through it, as history moves on.

Come From Away is at the Playhouse, Edinburgh, until 21 September, and the King’s Theatre, Glasgow, 24-28 September. The Wolves At The Door is at Oran Mor, Glasgow until 21 September, and at the Traverse, Edinburgh, 24-28 September. Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me is at the Tron, Glasgow, until 21 September; Summerhall, Edinburgh, 23-25 September; and the Findhorn Bay Festival, 28 September.