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Almost without introduction – there is no overture – the Refugee, Cameron Shahbazi, grounded downstage left, invites us to look up, up, high up to where the Controller, Caitlin Wood, like the Queen of the Night, almost floats in the roof-beams of Ken MacDonald’s airy sketch of an airport. Her voice, a stratospheric coloratura and his other-worldly counter-tenor, instantly set them apart from other mortals who soon appear. There are Bill (Asitha Tennekoon) and Tina (Andriana Churchman) a couple setting off on holiday to revivify their marriage. An Older Woman (Megan Latham) is meeting her fiancé while Minskman (Neil Craighead) is a diplomat off to a new posting with his heavily pregnant wife, Stephanie Tritchew. Looking after them are the sprightly amorous pair, the Steward and Stewardess, Clarence Frazer and Alex Hetherington. Lurking in the background is the sinister figure of the Immigration Officer (Henry Chen).

In an airport lounge, sometime in the past – go-go boots from costume designer Dana Osborne and an absence of wheeled suitcases and cell phones suggest the `60’s – the Refugee’s story unspools slowly. He is at first just an odd person, wandering the airport, asking for money for food. The others dismiss him, more concerned with their own affairs. Bill and Tina reveal that all is not well with their marriage. Tina thinks Bill is not adventurous enough and they both depend heavily on a sex manual The Steward and Stewardess are a randy couple who take every opportunity to have it off wherever they can. They speakt in platitudes and sing in repetitive, Glassian patterns.

The Older Woman is obsessed with her fiancé, a young bartender she met in a resort. She is, like the others, very much a type, but Megan Latham gives her dignity, even when insistently showing his postcards and re-iterating his promises to meet her “on Wednesday.” Neil Craighead is a very solid Minskman. Minskwoman is less sure of her future. Drama ensues when she refuses to get on the plane. The Refugee gives her a stone to hold for comfort as a storm approaches. All flights are cancelled..

During the storm, surreal things happen. Most gloriously, the Controller seems to challenge the storm with her aria “Fierce night.” Caitlin Wood put all the Controller’s cold heart into her operatically soaring defiance. Meanwhile, dull Bill goes in search of an adventure. When he inadvertently wakes the Steward, not the Stewardess, he carries on. Together they climb the stairs to the Controller’s tower singing “I’m so high…We’re so high up here."

Below, the women talk and the Refugee comforts each one with words of hope, giving each a magic stone to hold. The Stewardess opens the drinks trolley and everyone gets a little drunk. The underlying darkness of the opera begins to rise when the women discover that they all have stones. Jealous and betrayed, they pound the Refugee until he falls and they believe they’ve killed him. Aghast, they hide the body.

Dawn comes and with it a desire to get away and carry on. However, surprises are in store. Lightening the mood the Minskman returns and earnestly explains in Neil Craighead’s velvet tones how much he loves his wife. The night and perhaps the magic stone have restored the Minskwoman’s courage enough to say she will go to Belarus. Bill and the Steward appear, the Steward wearing Bill’s trousers and Bill with none at all. There were moments of humour before, but now Asitha Tennekoon came into his own as a very funny physical comedian. High comedy hit the boards as the two of them “explained” their nocturnal activities. Andriana Churchman offers up a hilarious old-fashioned rage aria with aplomb, clocks Bill and knocks him out. There are now two bodies but before the Minskman and the Steward can learn more, the Minskwoman goes into labour with full orchestral pushes.

Suddenly the Refugee wakes up as the baby is born, Bill also returns to life but without his memory. The Minskwoman finds herself flooded with love and happiness for her new life as a mother in a tender aria delivered by Stephanie Tritchew with gentle joy. Tritchew impressed throughout as one of the most sympathetic characters having a strong stage presence coupled with rich and lyrical tones. The Refugee, joined by the cast, wishes the baby a perfect world in a delicate theme enhanced by celeste and harp.

Just as it seems all will be well, the Immigration Officer catches the Refugee. Though the passengers are not united in protecting the Refugee, they offer the Officer money, the Older Woman offers marriage to the Refugee and the Minskwoman tries to play on the Officer’s sympathies, all to no avail. He is as wedded to the rules as Bill and Tina had been. Until, that is, the Refugee finally explains how he arrived at the airport and why he is still waiting for his brother. Devastating in its story, achingly beautiful in its music and profoundly sung by Cameron Shahbazi, this is a heart-stopping moment which holds the audience in thrall.

The Immigration Officer is moved to tell what he knows, a thing to add so terrible that even he relents. The Refugee may stay in the airport. The Controller calls the flight and the others leave to conventional good-byes and to begin their new lives while The Refugee and the Controller are left in enigmatic relationship.

Morris Panych’s understated direction felt lacking in energy on opening night and MacDonald’s interesting design, originally for the small Royal Theatre in Victoria a bit lost on the Queen Elizabeth’s large stage. The Vancouver Opera Orchestra under Leslie Dala however, offered a rich and incisive realization of Dove’s quixotic score.

© 2025 Elizabeth Paterson