Girl From the North Country

Roll back time to the Depression Era in the USA, when millions had to go on the road to survive and thousands starved to death. Girl From the North Country is a 2017 musical with music by the legendary Bob Dylan, and that alone makes it well worth a go. It features almost 20 Dylan songs and a stunningly good plot set around one family's fight for survival in their tatty guest house full of misfits. Their son Gene is trapped between bouts of boozing and attempts to become a writer. Their adopted daughter Marianne is five months pregnant and refuses to name the father, and the guests are each struggling in their own way to survive the economic storm.

Against this background the father of the family, Nick Laine, is having an affair with one of the guests, a widow who's waiting for her husband's will to clear probate, after which she'll be well off. Nick's wife Elizabeth spends most of her time in a daze, suffering from a kind of dementia, and she's becoming increasingly odd. Conor McPherson, who wrote the musical and the book, directs all this magic. No wonder the show won an Olivier for Best Actress in a Musical and Best Supporting Actress in a Musical, and was nominated for Best New Musical, Outstanding Achievement in Music and Best Actor. Go see it!