Justina Kehinde (Marianne Laine), Nichola MacEvilly (Ensemble), Frankie hart (Ensemble) and Rebecca Thornhill (Mrs Burke) in Girl from the North Country at The Old Vic (2025). Photo by Manuel Harlan.GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY already has something of a pedigree, having garnered multiple awards and critical success since its first outing in 2017. So does the production still have something worthwhile to say to a London audience, or does it merely serve as a commercial filler for The Old Vic? The answer, is almost certainly a little of both.
The creative narrative written and directed by Conor McPherson, is essentially composed of carefully crafted Bob Dylan song lyrics from 1963 - 2012, drawn from both notable and more obscure tracks, among them, All Along the Watchtower, Went To See The Gypsy, and Like A Rolling Stone, finely orchestrated and reworked by Simon Hale (who rightly won a Tony Award for his work). As a device, it gels the scenes together, generating a rhythmic ebb and flow to proceedings. In terms of song choices, perhaps more noteworthy, is the exclusion of better known Dylan tracks like The Times They Are A-Changin’, Mr Tambourine Man and Blowin’ In The Wind which don’t make the final cut - presumably because the lyrics didn’t suit the character plot lines.
Dr Walker (Chris McHallem) serves to act as part-time narrator when he isn’t administering to the residents’ need for painkillers. Nick Laine (Colin Connor) barely makes a living renting rooms in a ramshackle property while his disengaged wife Elizabeth (Katie Brayben in dazzling form) looks on from her armchair awaiting the moment that the bank forecloses. An assortment of souls wander in and out of their lives including their pregnant adopted daughter Marianne (Justina Kehinde) and Mrs Nielsen (Maria Omakinwa) who is awaiting the proceeds from her late husband’s estate and has become involved with Nick. A grifter Bible salesman Reverend Marlowe (Eugene McCoy) and a wrongfully imprisoned prizefighter Joe Scott (Sifiso Mazibuko) appear late one night, possibly having broken out of prison. Meanwhile husband and wife Mr and Mrs Burke (David Ganly and Rebecca Thornhill) are barely able to control their harmonica playing son Elias (a fine turn by Steffan Harri) who is on the spectrum and may have committed an horrific act of violence. Attempts are made to pair Marianne with an elderly businessman Mr Perry (Teddy Kempner), meanwhile the household’s son Gene Laine (Colin Bates) is drinking heavily and getting into arguments, possibly as a result of the imminent departure for New York of his erstwhile girlfriend Katherine Draper (Lydia White).
There is a real sense of lives lived and opportunities passing in the production’s Great Depression era time line. Everyone feels the pressure to acquire money while all around seem to be struggling to hold onto the little they have, so the production ultimately presents the inherent contradictions in the notion of an American Dream. The use of Dylan’s compositions, raised to a level of harmonics and orchestration which far outstrips the original material is a coup in itself and results in a wonderful, if sometimes unsettling evening of theatre.
GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY plays a limited engagement at The Old Vic until August 23rd and has a running time of 2 hours 30mins (including a 20min interval).
