"Girl from the North Country" by Conor McPherson
Nottingham Theatre Royal
This is nothing to do with any area north of the Watford Gap, but the story of a group of people who live in a guest house in Duluth, Minnesota, which also just happens to be the birth place of Bob Dylan, whose music is used in this musical.
The year is 1934. It is set in the Great Depression. The story tells of the crossing of paths of the owner of the boarding house, Nick Laine, who also has to deal with the foreclosure of the boarding house, his wife Elizabeth, their son Gene, and the residents of and visitors to the property.
So, we have the Great Depression, foreclosure of the Laine's home and business, an adopted child who was raped and now carrying the rapist's baby, an alcoholic son, a wife with serious dementia, murder, child murder (possibly), unemployment, a predatory old man and death details. What's not to love about this musical?
Nick Laine is played by Colin Conor and is the only cast member not to have a main singing role. Laine has many issues to deal with as well as a wife who is mentally ill plus an alcoholic son and an adopted daughter who was raped one night by a stranger, on top of everything else.
Frances McNamee is wonderful as Elizabeth Laine, Nick's wife, who lashes out due to her dementia, creating little explosions of passion and anger. I loved this role out of them all as she bought light relief from everything else that was going on. And there was an awful lot going on. Too much going on.
Playing the couple's son, Gene, is Gregor Milne.
Gene's ex-girlfriend, Katherine Draper, is Eve Norris. Katherine appeared for about five minutes to tell Gene that she was marrying someone else. Nothing to do with the story in hand, probably added to add more doom and gloom and also an excuse for Gene to sing thirty seconds or so of "I Want You".
Nick has an adopted daughter, the pregnant Marianne, played by Justina Kehinde.
Mrs Nelson, played by Keisha Amponsa Banson, is a widow and resident of the house, and is also sleeping with Nick, who also discovers at the end that she is not rich after all and is now pregnant with his child, and is also moving away.
Joe Scott, played by Joshua C Jackson, is a boxer, fresh out of prison and another of the house's residents. His first scenes include punching Gene as Gene had come back home drunk and picked a fight with the boxer! In the end though Joe does have possibly the most optimistic outlook of them all.
Eli James plays Reverend Marlowe, quite a tatty looking man of the cloth in appearance, and sells bibles. Also a resident at the property for a while as he arrives with Joe. But there is another story there also including Joe and why they arrived together.
Mr and Mrs Burke also reside there with their son, Elias, who albeit grown up has the mind of a child. There are squabbles a plenty with this family. Mrs Burke is played by James Staddon, Mrs Burke played by Rebecca Thornhill and Elias by Ross Carswell. Ross does have a really good part in Act Two after he "disappears" and comes back on stage dressed all in white - wonder what happened there eh? But he does get to deliver one of the highlight songs in the musical at this point.
There are also a couple of visitors to the property in Mr Perry, a shoe maker, played by Teddy Kempner, yes, cobblers, that what I thought as well, and the local GP, Dr Walker, who also narrates, played by Chris McHallem who, at the end tells us how the majority, included himself died.
The actors also double as instrumentalists alongside the band on stage, The Howlin' Winds.
I'm not a massive Dylan fan, although I like his Sixties hits and a smattering of his Seventies songs, but I love the arrangements written for the songs in this show. There are only a few well-known ones used, the rest are album tracks which I imagine only the die hard Dylan fans will know straight away. The uninitiated - the pair sat behind me - couldn't believe that Dylan had written and recorded the song "Make You Feel My Love" and queried as to why an Adele song was being used. God save me!
Jukebox musicals are supposed to have a majority of recognisable songs in there but these were in the minority in this show. And the songs just seem to have been slotted in anywhere to give a musical break and most didn't relate to the storyline at all. I can see the connection where Elizabeth sang "Like A Rolling Stone" though as she sang "How does it feel to be a complete unknown, to be left on your own?" I imagine that with her suffering form a kind of dementia, in her head that would be how she sees her life.
Directed and written by Conor McPherson.
Sound Design by Simon Baker, and the sound was crystal clear. With the stripped back arrangements, you heard everything that was sung. The gorgeous arrangements of Dylan's songs are by Simon Hale and Conor McPherson and really highlight the beauty of the lyrics of Dylan's songs.
Lighting Design by Mark Henderson, and at times lit quite darkly, probably to reflect the darkness of the story.
The final song, which as with all the songs was delivered beautifully, and all the actors had great voices, was called "Pressing On" - I think - but for me should have been renamed "Depressing On". That is how I felt as I mooched my way out to the street, depressed. And before all the realists get on my case and say that life is not all "happy clappy" musicals, I know that, but this story, or storylines for each character, in my opinion far too busy for its' own and the audiences' good. there was far too much going on and ended up nowhere but death. It really was too much of a dirge for me.
The actors did a fine job but, and this is only my opinion, when you have a script like this where there is very little light and far too much shade, it's the script that is too dark and depressing and the actors are only doing their job.
Go and see it if you are overdosing on the happy pills, so that it will bring you down. Don't see it unless you are a Dylan fan, or you are feeling just a bit low, as it may just push you over the edge.
Sorry, but this is not for me, but then again, I can't like everything now can I?
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