THE return of the Jersey Opera House has brought a renewed sense of excitement to the Island’s performing arts scene, according to the director of one of its first major community productions.
Advocate Simon Thomas – a partner at Baker & Partners who is directing the production of Come From Away – said there was “nothing like” staging a large-scale musical in the historic venue after its lengthy closure and reopening following an £11m refurbishment.
Speaking in a Bailiwick Podcasts episode this week, he described the atmosphere since the theatre reopened as “such a buzz”.
“People are delighted to be back,” he said. “I always get a community feeling. You go there and you see people you don’t otherwise see waiting for a show, meet people that you hadn’t seen for a while from the arts and those who are interested in the arts.”
The internationally acclaimed musical Come From Away, based on the true story of the Newfoundland community that welcomed thousands of stranded airline passengers following the 11 September terrorist attacks, is among the first major amateur productions to take to the Opera House stage since it reopened.
Advocate Thomas said the venue was the ideal home for a production of its scale.
“It’s quite a technical show,” he explained. “It needs to have the benefit of the Opera House lighting rig [and] the sound system. I can’t think of a better place in Jersey to be putting this on.”
He also lauded the Opera House for its air-conditioning, given that the performance lands in the Island’s second heatwave in as many weeks.
During the years the Opera House was closed, theatre groups adapted by performing in venues ranging from Highlands College to the Royal Jersey Showground and the Jersey Arts Centre.
Advocate Thomas, who last directed at the Opera House in 2019 before its closure, praised the resilience of the Island’s theatre community during that period.
“The arts community, I think, has really responded well when it was closed, finding different spaces,” he said. “But for this sort of production there’s nothing like a proscenium arch theatre.”
“Watching audiences return has reinforced that feeling.
“We’ve been seeing standing ovations in the stalls and in the dress circle. The whole place comes to life when you get the audience reaction from the Opera House,” he explained.
While Come From Away tells a story of a community coming together in extraordinary circumstances, Advocate Thomas said he believes staging it at the Opera House has created a similar sense of togetherness for Jersey’s theatre world.
Although rooted in one of history’s darkest days, in the aftermath of the Twin Towers tragedy, Advocate Thomas said he also thinks the themes of kindness and community will resonate strongly in Jersey.
In the past month alone, the community rallied around to support a bride-to-be who lost her bridesmaids’ dresses in a recent St Helier laundrette fire, and also raised thousands for those impacted by the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela – examples which the cast have used to inspire their performances.
“You can imagine if people suddenly landed in St Helier. There’s no doubt people would be opening their doors, taking them in.”
The production runs until Saturday and tickets can be bought online via the Opera House website: jerseyoperahouse.co.uk/events/come-from-away
Full podcast: The top Jersey trial lawyer with a second life in theatre
Search Bailiwick Podcasts or scan the QR code to listen to the full interview with Advocate Thomas, in which he talks about doing justice to real-life stories, whether musicals deserve more credit than they’re often given, and whether there’s any truth in the old cliché that “all barristers are failed actors”…
