Although Todd Almond is credited as the author of this book, he might more accurately be described as its curator or editor. The story is of the American production of a play with music, The Girl from the North Country, scripted by Irish playwright Conor McPherson and with a dozen songs selected from the 50-year songbook of Bob Dylan. Todd Almond performed as Elias in that first US production (there are no leading characters, since it is an ensemble) and has reconvened that troupe in a series of video calls and in-person interviews.
McPherson was also the director, not only for the London opening at the Old Vic but in New York and of its Irish production. Almond describes how it moved to Broadway, but only a full year after the first production closed. The New York run is full of such stops and starts. Suddenly the Covid pandemic arrived and closed the show, not once but twice. Every theatre production is fraught; this was more fraught than most. But the play kept on coming back.
The Girl from the North Country featured a number of theatrical firsts for McPherson. It was set in the US and featured a wider range of female characters than usual. Its large cast of drifters assembled in a boarding house in 1934 in the Midwest town of Duluth during the height of the Great Depression. Dylan was born in Duluth in 1941. He is still touring and recording, still a central force in the culture. McPherson wanted Dylan’s music in the play. He wrote a powerful 1½-page pitch, which was read to Dylan backstage at a London concert. (McPherson and Dylan have never met.) The singer-songwriter said, “Let’s go with that one”. When McPherson came in to direct, he had always slung on his acoustic guitar and provided accompaniment to the cast members, each of whom had to sing a song.
[ Joan Baez: Do I ever hear from Bob Dylan? ‘Not a word’Opens in new window ]
This book carefully follows the 3½-year course of the American production, through the pandemic and out the other side. It will prove fascinating to more than those interested in McPherson and/or Dylan, since Slow Train Coming provides a rare insight into the very process of theatre itself.
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Anthony Roche is Associate Professor in the School of English, Drama and Film at UCD
