Girl From the North Country Ambassador Blog
By Angus
Girl from the North Country is a show all about parallels. Those between the past and present, those between life and art, those between life and death. The list goes on. It is not only a celebration of Bob Dylan’s work and the timelessness of it, but also a reminder of how applicable his lyrics and music still are today and asks if a time will ever come when the issues they deal with and convey will become obsolete. The play takes us from witty humor, mostly dark to the deepest pathos. It is a truly powerful and moving production, brought to life by the actors’ and crew’s brilliant production of the script, and Dylan’s music.
Set in a boarding house in 1934 Duluth, Minnesota, the play follows the interweaving lives of the characters in the boarding house against the looming backdrop of the Great Depression and the waters of Lake Superior. The play shows how many of the problems prevalent back then --- a fractured justice system, prejudice and racism, increasing difficulties for the lower classes --- are still prevalent in modern America, the songs of Bob Dylan setting a defiant mood and bridging the gap between a not so distant past and the present.
It cannot be forgotten that Conor McPherson, the playwright, is Irish, which elevates the themes of the production to a more global level. The animosity and prejudice dealt with in the play reminds of the conflict between the British and Irish across the Atlantic and the myriad of conflicts elsewhere in the world, as well as the more personal divides in peoples’ relationships. It shows the similarities between Arthur Miller and John M. Synge, both of whose influence is evident in the play. The Joycean theme of gnomon, something that isn’t there but still casts a shadow, is also present in the play in one of the plotlines that involves the unborn baby of the adopted black daughter of the owners of the boarding house. Perhaps the unborn child is the “girl from the North Country,” the pursuit of a more perfect union, of happiness, of an innocence that is lost at birth. The birth of a person? A way of thought? A society? A nation? The answer is blowin’ in the wind.
Highly recommended for fans of Dylan and lovers of musical theatre. The show runs until Sunday, January 7th.
