“The extraordinary cast command the stage and work like a perfectly fine tuned machine.”
“I haven’t enjoyed a piece of theatre this much in years. It’s engaging, funny, poignant, and beautifully performed.” – Suzanne Mackay 5 /5 stars
The Girl From The North Country weaves the songs of Bob Dylan through a multi-generational story of depression era Minnesota. Set in Duluth, Dylan’s childhood hometown, it is seamless in its story and song and could quite possibly be the perfect example of a ‘jukebox musical’.
The script stands on its own, telling its story of the usual pain and love then love lost without a hint of cliche. We first meet the Laine family, the troubled, eccentric Elizabeth (Lisa McCune), her husband Nick (Peter Kowitz) the proprietor of the local establishment trying to keep it all together, their son Gene (James Smith), aimless and looking for something to ground him and their daughter Marianne (Zahra Newman), adopted into their family as a baby and pregnant with her own child, the father unknown.
Mrs. Neilsen (Christina O’Neill), a lodger who is about to come into money, puts a chink in any domestic serenity with an affair between her and Nick in plain sight of Elizabeth. Mr and Mrs Burke (Greg Stone and Helen Dallimore) frequent the establishment with their son Elias (Blake Erickson), who would have been described in these times as a ‘simple boy’ perennially attached to his parents. The families bemoan the world as it is and the story both hovers luxuriously over the everyday moments yet also moves at a clipping pace. The music is provided by the band, joined at times by the actors who move to the drums or to provide percussion in an almost Brechtian fashion, which never interrupts the story or disrupts the connection we feel toward the characters.
The town doctor and sometime narrator (Terence Crawford) drops by as do two travellers, the earnest and somewhat capitalistic Reverend Marlowe (Grant Piro) and the mysterious boxer Joe Scott (Callum Francis) who all act as a catalyst for the shifting of the action.
The Girl From The North Country is unique in its ability to build tension and engage the audience without focusing on just one story. The play is seamless, the music blends so intimately into the show that it becomes another voice, rather than an interruption. The singing is beautiful, the choreography flawless and nothing I’ve seen has been such a true and honest ensemble. Not for a moment did any performer drop their focus, the energy and electricity was evident from the moment the lights went up, every moment on stage was full of pathos and fire, without being overbearing or melodramatic.
The extraordinary cast command the stage and work like a perfectly fine tuned machine. Callum Francis performs with such presence and skill that in any other scenario he would risk outshining those around him but here he is matched by all those who share the stage with him. I haven’t enjoyed a piece of theatre this much in years. It’s engaging, funny, poignant, and beautifully performed and I hope it gets the audience it deserves.
Suzanne Mackay, Theatre Now
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