{"title":"‘Me and the Sky’: smashing the glass ceiling in\n Come from Away\n , neoliberal feminism, and climate change","authors":"Evelyn O’Malley","doi":"10.1080/14682761.2024.2325305","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article considers neoliberal feminism and environmental concerns in Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s musical Come from Away . While the musical is not directly concerned with anthropogenic climate change, many types of skies appear as thematic and meta-phorical preoccupations in the piece: feminist blue skies, stormy Newfoundland skies, the clear skies of the American Dream, skies of terror, and skies of war. I argue that Come from Away hides the tragedy of climate change in plain sight, in the sky. Undertaking a close analysis of the showstopping number ‘Me and the Sky,’ sung by the airline pilot Beverly Bass – based on the real-life woman of the same name – I observe the rift between neoliberal feminist success, acts of terror, and the slow-moving tempo of a changing climate. Come from Away’ s celebration of neoliberal feminism is cut short in the song, but it foreshadows the possibilities of a more successful recognition of the conjunction between feminist and environmental awareness.","PeriodicalId":42067,"journal":{"name":"Studies in Theatre and Performance","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2024-03-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Studies in Theatre and Performance","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/14682761.2024.2325305","RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"THEATER","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article considers neoliberal feminism and environmental concerns in Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s musical Come from Away . While the musical is not directly concerned with anthropogenic climate change, many types of skies appear as thematic and meta-phorical preoccupations in the piece: feminist blue skies, stormy Newfoundland skies, the clear skies of the American Dream, skies of terror, and skies of war. I argue that Come from Away hides the tragedy of climate change in plain sight, in the sky. Undertaking a close analysis of the showstopping number ‘Me and the Sky,’ sung by the airline pilot Beverly Bass – based on the real-life woman of the same name – I observe the rift between neoliberal feminist success, acts of terror, and the slow-moving tempo of a changing climate. Come from Away’ s celebration of neoliberal feminism is cut short in the song, but it foreshadows the possibilities of a more successful recognition of the conjunction between feminist and environmental awareness.