Conor McPherson: 'Dylan left me alone and didn't try to control it'
Conor McPherson, Girl From The North Country. Picture: Colm Hogan.
It’s not every day that you receive an invitation from Bob Dylan to write a musical. Irish playwright Conor McPherson says when he was approached by the legendary singer’s management to see if he would consider writing a show using Dylan’s music, it felt very strange. However, what initially seemed like a relatively random request from the Nobel Prize winner made more sense in hindsight, according to the award-winning writer of The Weir, Shining City and The Seafarer.
“In his autobiography, Chronicles, he [Dylan] says theatre is the highest art form. He also writes about hanging out with Liam Clancy in New York and learning a lot of Irish folk songs; he always had a strong connection to Irish music. Over the years, he has had a connection to Ireland and its literature. I guess that in some way that he had some instinct about my work and liked what I was saying,” says McPherson.
The result is Girl From The North Country, which is currently running at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin after acclaimed runs in the West End and on Broadway. The production, which is written and directed by McPherson, is set in a boarding house in the Depression, and features a large cast of characters. McPherson says he was inspired by the work of Irish-American playwright Eugene O’Neill.
“I thought Bob’s music would fit into a more historical American feeling. And so I had an idea for a story that was set where he was born, in Duluth, Minnesota, and I set it in the 1930s. I saw it as a Eugene O’Neill-type play like The Iceman Cometh, where you have people trying to survive in the Depression, and Bob’s songs could bounce off their characters and deepen it somehow."
"Having said that, when I had that idea, I thought that's probably not what they want. So I just typed up a page of two and sent it off. But then I heard back from them saying that Bob really loved it.”
It was less a creative collaboration and more of a blank slate for McPherson to do whatever he wanted. “The good thing about it was that he really left me alone and didn't try to control it at all. He was very generous in that way. And so I didn't really have to deal with the stardom of Bob Dylan. I was only really dealing with his work. That was a lovely freedom that I had.”
McPherson says Dylan was very supportive and although he missed out on meeting him, the singer showed his appreciation in a thoughtful gesture.
“He had written to us when we were doing the show and he came to see the show, and spent time with the cast. That was in New York and I was already back in Ireland by that time. He was really generous and so complimentary. And he sent me a beautiful painting that he made, it was lovely to have his support.”
McPherson is also known for his work as a screenwriter and director on films such as I Went Down and The Eclipse. In addition, he is a keen guitarist, and working on Girl from the North Country allowed him to explore his passion for music.
“Because it's set in the 1930s, the instruments that we use are only what would have been around then and so it sort of opens the songs up. We’ve got a lovely choral element to it, and it’s very real, it's not processed. I think Bob is a spiritual songwriter, and so in a funny way, it's almost like a religious service — and Irish people, I think that's how we do connect a lot with theatre.”
The role that music can play in enhancing the dramatic journey was also a revelation for the Dubliner.
“I realise that using music like that in the theatre is a huge emotional shortcut. As playwrights, we’re labouring up the mountain trying to reach this kind of emotional place. Then someone says, ‘hey, do you want some oxygen to help get you to the top of the mountain?’ And that’s what the music is like — it’s giving you that emotional warp speed.”
McPherson acknowledges that the show’s Depression-era setting will have an unsettling resonance for audiences today. “It was about 2016 when I started and I felt the world was going back to that place, dividing again, like the 1930s. There was talk about walls and borders and Trump and all of that was coming down the tracks. Unfortunately, that has all continued to be true. History repeats itself, and we never seem to learn from the previous generation unless it's in our living memory. And so, more and more, this show feels like now.”
However, going by the rave reviews, the show belies its bleak context to ultimately uplift the audience.
“I always say to the performers, we can bring the darkness because the music is like the honey and we're like the vinegar. If we are the honey as well, it’s all just a mush. So you've got to have that balance of light and shade,” he says.
There was plenty of shade experienced by McPherson and the company when the show had a triumphant opening on Broadway, only to be shut down a week later due to Covid.
“The opening was amazing, then when it closed, we all thought, oh it will be closed for a few weeks, you know, when Covid goes away. And then of course that just continued on and on. But we managed to keep going and now it’s being seen in all different places. In a funny way it kept a lot of us going because the company always knew when this is all over we’ll come back and do this. It gave us a lot of hope as well.”
The show has been recast on this side of the Atlantic and after Dublin, the production is touring to Britain. McPherson says he believes Irish audiences will connect even more to the show.
“I think they’ll love it and that they will understand it here more than anywhere because this kind of story is in our DNA and our relationship to music is so strong. I said to the performers to get ready, the Irish audience are incredibly vocal, you feel their energy. I've always felt that. I’m also incredibly nervous when I do something in Dublin, it’s very profound for me.”
McPherson also says that the show will appeal to people who are not familiar with Dylan’s vast songbook.
“We have a lot of songs in this that even fans don’t know. So it’s like you’ll be hearing songs for the first time. He’s such a beautiful songwriter and we very much bring out the beauty of the music.”
He adds that having Dylan trust him with his words and music has been ‘extraordinary’ and that the whole experience has yet to fully sink in. “It’s amazing and the fact that it’s worked and that he’s happy with it, I mean, that’s like, ‘woah’. I’m not trying to say I’m on his level but when you connect to another artist in that purely artistic way, it’s a really unique and humbling experience. It’s probably not one I will understand, to be honest with you, really ever.”
- Girl From The North Country is at Olympia Theatre, Dublin, until July 30. 3Olympia.ie
