Girl from the North Country (NHB Modern Plays) E-Book

Conor McPherson

• Herausgeber: Nick Hern Books
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Beschreibung

Duluth, Minnesota. 1934. A community living on a knife-edge. Lost and lonely people huddle together in the local guesthouse. The owner, Nick, owes more money than he can ever repay, his wife Elizabeth is losing her mind, and their daughter Marianne is carrying a child no one will account for. So, when a preacher selling bibles and a boxer looking for a comeback turn up in the middle of the night, things spiral beyond the point of no return… In Girl from the North Country, Conor McPherson beautifully weaves the iconic songbook of Bob Dylan into a show full of hope, heartbreak and soul. It premiered at The Old Vic, London, in July 2017, in a production directed by Conor McPherson, and later transferred to the West End, Broadway, Australia, Ireland and toured the UK.

Leseprobe

Conor McPherson

GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY

Music and Lyrics by

Bob Dylan

NICK HERN BOOKS

London

www.nickhernbooks.co.uk

Contents

Introduction

Original Production Details

Dedication

Girl from the North Country

About the Authors

Copyright and Performing Rights Information

Introduction

Maybe five years ago I was asked if I might consider writing a play to feature Bob Dylan’s songs. I initially didn’t feel this was something I could do and I had cast it out of my mind when, one day, walking along, I saw a vision of a guesthouse in Minnesota in the 1930s.

I had been in Minnesota twice in the years leading up to this – both times in the dead of winter. The friendliness of the people, the dry frozen wind, the vast distance from home, these things had stayed with me. And I saw a way Mr Dylan’s songs might make sense in a play.

I was invited to write down the idea I had seen and send it to Bob Dylan. A few days later I heard back that Mr Dylan liked the idea and was happy for me to proceed. Just like that.

And then I received forty albums in the post, covering Mr Dylan’s career. While I owned Dylan albums already, like Desire and Blood on the Tracks, and loved many of his songs (often without knowing he’d written them) performed by hundreds of artists from The Byrds to Fairport Convention, I had no idea of the real search he had been on his whole life.

It strikes me that many of Mr Dylan’s songs can be sung at any time, by anyone in any situation, and still make sense and resonate with that particular place and person and time. When you realise this you can no longer have any doubt you are in the presence of a truly great, unique artist.

Working on our production of Girl from the North Country, sometimes I would wake in the night with a Bob Dylan song going round in my head. The next day I would come into rehearsals and we’d learn the song and put it in the show. Did it fit? Did it matter? It always fit somehow.

Many books have been written in an attempt to explore this universal power. Even though Mr Dylan will say he’s often not sure what his songs mean, he always sings them like he means them. Because he does mean them. Whatever they mean.

Every time I hear these songs I see a picture like I’m watching a movie. Sometimes it’s the same, sometimes it’s different, but you always see something.

Like Philip Larkin, like James Joyce, Mr Dylan has the rare power of literary compression. Images and conceits are held in unstable relations, forcing an atomic reaction of some kind, creating a new inner world.

But let’s talk about his musicality. Spending time with his music has taught me a few things: Firstly, writing something that sounds original is rare, but writing something that sounds original and simple at the same time is the mark of genius. Anyone can keep making things more complicated, but to keep a song simple, like it somehow always existed and would have surely been written by someone, someday… try writing that one.

Secondly, Mr Dylan always goes through the right musical door. Listening to a Bob Dylan song is like being in a room you’ve never been in before. It’s full of characters and images and tons of musical atmosphere. But then Bob changes the chords, moving through a bridge or a chorus, and a door opens up in that room, so you go through that door into another room – but it’s always the right door.

Thirdly, Mr Dylan sings about God a lot. Sometimes God appears as an impossible reflection of yourself. Sometimes as someone you could never know. But however God appears, however Mr Dylan begs for mercy, you understand that cry.

Anyway, I write this on the eve of moving from the rehearsal room to the theatre. Whatever happens next I have no idea. All I can say with any certainty is that having had Mr Dylan’s trust to create a piece of work using his songs has been one of the great artistic privileges of my life.

Conor McPherson

London, June 2017

Girl from the North Country premiered at The Old Vic, London, on 8 July 2017, with the following cast (in alphabetical order) and creative team:

MARIANNE LAINE

Sheila Atim

DR WALKER

Ron Cook

MRS BURKE

Bronagh Gallagher

ELIZABETH LAINE

Shirley Henderson

NICK LAINE

Ciarán Hinds

KATHERINE DRAPER

Claudia Jolly

JOE SCOTT

Arinzé Kene

MRS NEILSEN

Debbie Kurup

ENSEMBLE

Kirsty Malpass

MR PERRY

Jim Norton

ENSEMBLE

Tom Peters

ENSEMBLE

Karl Queensborough

GENE LAINE

Sam Reid

REVEREND MARLOWE

Michael Shaeffer

ELIAS BURKE

Jack Shalloo

MR BURKE

Stanley Townsend

Director

Conor McPherson

Music and Lyrics

Bob Dylan

Designer

Rae Smith

Orchestrator, Arranger and Musical Supervisor

Simon Hale

Lighting Designer

Mark Henderson

Sound Designer

Simon Baker

Musical Director

Alan Berry

Movement Director

Lucy Hind

Casting Director

Jessica Ronane CDG

The production transferred to the Noël Coward Theatre, London, on 29 December 2017, with the following changes to the cast:

ENSEMBLE

Hannah Azuonye

ENSEMBLE

Ross Dawes

ENSEMBLE

Mary Doherty

MR BURKE

David Ganly

DR WALKER

Adam James

MR PERRY

Karl Johnson

ENSEMBLE

Emmanuel Kojo

REVEREND MARLOWE

Finbar Lynch

The production received its North American premiere at the Belasco Theatre, New York City, on 7 February 2020, with the following cast:

ELIAS BURKE

Todd Almond

MRS NEILSEN

Jeannette Bayardelle

SWING

Jennifer Blood

SWING

Law Terrell Dunford

ENSEMBLE

Matthew Harris

KATHERINE DRAPER

Caitlin Houlahan

DR WALKER

Robert Joy

MR BURKE

Marc Kudisch

MRS BURKE

Luba Mason

SWING

Ben Mayne

REVEREND MARLOWE

Matt McGrath

MR PERRY

Tom Nelis

GENE LAINE

Colton Ryan

NICK LAINE

Jay O. Sanders

ENSEMBLE

John Schiappa

JOE SCOTT

Austin Scott

MARIANNE LAINE

Kimber Sprawl

ENSEMBLE

Rachel Stern

SWING

Chiara Trentalange

SWING

Bob Walton

ELIZABETH LAINE

Mare Winningham

The 2022–23 tour of Ireland and the UK premiered at the Olympia Theatre, Dublin, on 25 June 2022, with the following cast:

MRS NEILSEN

Keisha Amponsa Banson

ELIAS BURKE

Ross Carswell

NICK LAINE

Colin Connor

ENSEMBLE

Frankie Hart

JOE SCOTT

Joshua C. Jackson

REVEREND MARLOWE

Eli James

MARIANNE LAINE

Justina Kehinde

MR PERRY

Teddy Kempner

ENSEMBLE

Graham Kent

ENSEMBLE

Owen Lloyd

ENSEMBLE

Nichola MacEvilly

DR WALKER

Chris McHallem

ELIZABETH LAINE

Frances McNamee

GENE LAINE

Gregor Milne

KATHERINE DRAPER

Eve Norris

ENSEMBLE

Daniel Reid-Walters

MR BURKE

James Staddon

ENSEMBLE

Neil Stewart

MRS BURKE

Rebecca Thornhill

For Fionnuala and Sumati

Characters

NICK LAINE, early fifties, proprietor

ELIZABETH LAINE, early fifties, his wife

MARIANNE LAINE, nineteen, their daughter

GENE LAINE, twenty, their son

MRS NEILSEN, early forties, a widow

MR BURKE, fifties, erstwhile factory owner

MRS BURKE, fifties, his wife

ELIAS BURKE, thirty, their son

JOE SCOTT, late twenties, a boxer

REVEREND MARLOWE, fifties, a Bible salesman

MR PERRY, early sixties, a shoe-mender

DR WALKER, middle-aged, a physician

KATHERINE (KATE) DRAPER, Gene’s ex-girlfriend

Setting

A fair-sized family house, which is now serving as a guesthouse in Duluth, Minnesota. Winter, 1934.

Note on Lyrics

An ellipsis (…) on its own line indicates an omitted verse or chorus from within the original song.

ACT ONE

Sign On The Window

ALL.

Sign on the window says ‘Lonely’

Sign on the door said ‘No Company Allowed’

Sign on the street says ‘Y’ Don’t Own Me’

Sign on the porch says ‘Three’s A Crowd’

Sign on the porch says ‘Three’s A Crowd’

…

Looks like a-nothing but rain…

Sure gonna be wet tonight on Main Street…

Hope that it don’t sleet.

The band take the music down for a few bars while DR WALKER approaches the microphone:

DR WALKER. Tonight’s story begins and ends at a guesthouse in Duluth, Minnesota, in the winter of 1934. Back here – some of the guests we’ll meet along the way.

The rising light reveals two figures in the dining room where there’s a table for eating at, some easy chairs near a stove, a dresser, a piano. ELIZABETH, fifties, has early-onset dementia. Her husband, NICK, is the same age as ELIZABETH but an agitated energy makes him seem younger somehow. He puts on an apron and starts working, setting the table for their guests.

This is Nick Laine. That’s his wife there, Elizabeth. Nick inherited this house from his granddaddy, but he never had no head for business. First he lost the stables and stud, then all the stocks. Managed to remortgage the house long enough for Elizabeth to turn it into decent boarding rooms.

NICK takes a revolver from his pocket and examines it. ELIZABETH shoves him. He gives her a dirty look and puts the gun away.

But she hasn’t been so good lately. Nick’s tryna take care of everything. Trying real hard. Like a man tryna run through a wall tries real hard.

My name is George Arthur Walker. I’m a doctor. Least I was. Back when this was our world. I healed some bodies in pain. But as we know pain comes in all kinds. Physical, spiritual. Indescribable.

I’ll come in the story later, but right now, all you need to know is Nick’s made some stew for his family, for the guests. Keep everybody alive another day.

NICK spoons stew in a bowl to cool for ELIZABETH. The song finishes out…

NICK. Elizabeth. (Pause.) Elizabeth.

She ignores him.

Elizabeth. Sit down, I’ll give you something to eat.

ELIZABETH’s expression suggests her absence, her presence. She looks at him but otherwise ignores his requests. She goes, bends down under a chair and retrieves a little box. She turns away, hiding it from NICK. She opens it, counts through some dollars in there, and closes it again quickly.

Sit down. Come on. Supper.