| Storming Welsh Performance in Bob Dylan-Conor McPherson Revival |
The Girl from the North Country |
| Runaway Entertainment & the Old Vic , The Old Vic London , July 31, 2025 |
2025 has been a year of Bob Dylan. The Oscar nominations for “A Complete Unknown” included Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor, Best Supporting Actress.Nominations at the 82nd Golden Globe Awards included Best Motion Picture. Awards followed at the 31st Screen Actors Guild Awards and at the British Academy Film Awards. That was the film in the public light. Art is also private experience. The emotional impact of the film ran deep. A figure well-known in the culture of Wales was in the cinema three times, the experience bringing forth tears. The widespread coverage of the film saw Martin Scorsese's epic two-part documentary “No Direction Home” re-shown on television. And in the summer Conor McPherson’s threading of songs from the Dylan canon into a dramatised story-line returns. “The Girl from the North Country” has a lot to live up to. From the first review, below, “Its opening in the summer of 2017 was met with a critical acclaim that ran to ecstasy. Five stars from the heavyweight critics are rarely given. The production was showered with them.” So the opportunity to see it reprised is going to see the question asked: just how good was it? The answer is pretty good, not quite as it was with the first cast, a sublime gathering. But it is still bigger, deeper, more impact-full than almost anything else to be seen. The first impression, emphasised after the film, is the wisdom of Conor McPherson in its setting. Duluth in 1934 pivots Dylan away both temporally and geographically. Greenwich Village, Rhode Island, the 1960s are a universe away. He is fitted into the great tradition of song. A early scene in “A Complete Unknown” has him on a hospital visit singing a self-written song, to an old tune, from the first album. “Hey hey Woody Guthrie I wrote you a song...Here's to Cisco and Sonny and Leadbelly too. And to all the good people that travelled with you.” Nick Laine's lodging house in the mid-west is that America of Guthrie, Houston and Leadbelly. Wales exports performing talent on a grand scale. There is seemingly a rule that every London company must include a performer of Wales. Last year Owain Arthur was a fizzing Nathan Detroit. Here Steffan Harri, from Dolganog, has the role of Elias Burke. The character has few lines. But he has a scene of resurrection, pictured, in which he returns to storm his way through "Listen to that Duquesne whistle blowin'.” “Blowin' like it's gonna sweep my world away/ I'm gonna stop in Carbondale and keep on going/ That Duquesne train gonna ride me night and day." Great cover versions of Dylan lyrics run to the hundreds. The voice is often so much the song that a musical director needs to be clever. “Like a Rolling Stone” is slowed down. “How-does-it-feel?” is sung with a gravity given to each word. The new company is strong. Critic Dominic Maxwell rightly wrote “although one of the cast has an accent whose consonants and vowels hail from opposing sides of the Atlantic, the standard of the performances remains high.” So many moments to relish. The second act opens with all cast-number, twenty-three, of “You ain't going nowhere.” The merging of verses from “Hurricane” with “Along the Watchtower” brings out the best in both. If there is a peak of spine-thrilling sublimity to be picked out there are two contenders. In act two Rebecca Thornhill as Mrs Burke from side stage sings the opening lines: “Do you love me Or are you just extending goodwill? Do you need me half as bad as you say Or are you just feeling guilt?” Sheila Atim was a star in the first production. Justina Kehinde is her equal as Marianne Laine. In April she was a powerful presence in the revival of Neil LaBute's three-hander on assisted dying “How to Fight Loneliness.” There is a wonder of simplicity that strikes right to the heart: “I'm gonna get my coat I feel the breath of a storm There's something I've got to do tonight You go inside and stay warm. Has anybody seen my love? Has anybody seen my love?” |
Reviewed by: Adam Somerset |
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