Come From Away, a new musical about the 7000 passengers whose planes were diverted to Gander, Newfoundland, after the September 11th attacks, is not only a fine piece of theater. It’s also a rich trove of Newfoundland language, including “come from away,” and a noun that means “visitor.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Come From Away”
You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it.
I’m Grant Barrett.
And I’m Martha Barnette.
I’m not much of a fan of musicals.
Are you, Grant?
Do you like musicals?
Yeah, yeah.
I love them.
Do you really?
Oh, sure.
I love to get carried away by the songs.
Okay.
All right.
Well, then you would love the musical I just saw.
It’s called Come From Away.
And I have to say that even though I’m not a fan of musicals, this has to be one of the best theatrical experiences I have had ever in my life anywhere.
Wow.
That’s saying something.
You see a fair amount of theater.
I do see a fair amount, and this is just right up there.
And let me tell you why.
It’s called Come From Away, and it just finished a run here at the La Jolla Playhouse.
In the hours after the September 11th attacks, there were 38 planes carrying 7,000 passengers that were all diverted to Gander, Newfoundland.
And it’s the story of how they all converged on this tiny place that only has 500 hotel rooms.
We’re talking 7,000 people.
Wow.
And it’s just an extraordinary tale in every way about what happened over the next few days.
And it really made me want to go, of course, to Newfoundland.
But in the meantime, I’m checking out all the language.
The title, Come From Away.
Well, that’s interesting.
There’s something in there, right?
Well, yes, that’s interesting that you mention it.
I mean, the language there is this really interesting odd mix of English and Irish and French and Aboriginal languages.
And so, yeah, you get these strange constructions like come from away, which you would think is a verb, but actually it’s a noun.
The whole thing, all three words?
Yeah.
Come from away is a visitor.
It’s someone who has come from away.
Sometimes it’s just abbreviated as CFA.
Isn’t that cool?
CFA.
I’m a come from away.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I’m really working on the pronunciation of this place, Newfoundland.
They say, think of understand and Newfoundland because they get.
Gotcha.
They’re not happy.
It’s not Newfoundland.
Oh, my gosh.
Yeah.
We’ve gotten feedback about that before.
So I’m trying really hard to get it right.
Thanks for writing.
Granta just dies at you.
You do?
I know I’m handsome.
No, you are very, very handsome.
But it means you’re so funny if you say, I just dies at you.
Oh, nice.
That’s great.
Yeah.
I really like this one.
If you do something remarkable, whether it’s remarkably stupid or remarkably good, if you did something like that, Grant, I would say, Grant, who knit you?
Who knit you?
K-N-I-T, knit you.
So what is the stuff of the earth that you’ve been knit from?
Yes, exactly.
Oh, what are you made out of?
Yeah.
That’s cool.
Yeah, yeah.
That’s cool.
Yes, yes, see?
See, so I’m going to share some more of those later in the show, but I thought you’d get a kick out of that.
Newfoundland.
Newfoundland.
Oh, dear.
Newfoundland.
Newfoundland.
Got it.
Understand Newfoundland.
Understand Newfoundland.
I think I’ve got that right.
Let us know, people in Gander.
877-929-9673.
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