Duluth, Minnesota. 1934. A community living on a knife-edge. Lost and lonely people huddle together in the local guesthouse.
The owner, Nick, owes more money than he can ever repay, his wife Elizabeth is losing her mind, and their daughter Marianne is carrying a child no one will account for.
So, when a preacher selling bibles and a boxer looking for a comeback turn up in the middle of the night, things spiral beyond the point of no return…
In Girl from the North Country, Conor McPherson beautifully weaves the iconic songbook of Bob Dylan into a show full of hope, heartbreak and soul. It premiered at The Old Vic, London, in July 2017, in a production directed by Conor McPherson, and later transferred to the West End, Broadway, Australia, Ireland and toured the UK.
‘Ravishing… [Bob Dylan’s songs have] never sounded quite so heartbreakingly personal and universal at the same time… the most imaginative and inspired use to date of a popular composer’s songbook in this blighted era of the jukebox musical… this is as close as mortals come to heaven on Earth’
- New York Times
‘The idea is inspired and the treatment piercingly beautiful… two formidable artists have shown respect for the integrity of each other’s work here and the result is magnificent’
- Independent
‘A show that transports the soul… dialogue flows into a Dylan song and back again in a way that deepens the emotions of both… McPherson has come up with something bewitchingly original. It’s pure stage magic’
- The Times
‘Original, beautiful and moving, combining the starkness of Steinbeck with haunting lyricism to create something restless, desperate, hopeful and sad’
- Financial Times
‘Gut-wrenching, glorious… Dylan’s songs are brought to life in a spellbinding show’
- Radio Times
‘The play and songs weave around one another, reflecting, deepening, revealing, in exquisitely soulful harmony… shades of O'Neill and Steinbeck… dreamlike and bleakly beautiful’
- Broadway World
‘Bob Dylan’s back catalogue is used to glorious effect in Conor McPherson’s astonishing cross-section of hope and stoic suffering… it is the constant dialogue between the drama and the songs that makes this show exceptional’
- Guardian
