GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY at the Gielgud Theatre - no direction home

When GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY premiered at the Old Vic in 2017, the idea of sitting through a musical consisting of Bob Dylan songs left me cold so I avoided it but of course it gathered rave reviews and two Olivier Awards - if it had not been for the HAMILTON juggernaut I am sure it would have been more.  After three months at the Old Vic, it played a further three months at the Noel Coward Theatre, but I still couldn't work up the courage to see it.  So when a revival was announced at the Gielgud Theatre I made sure seats were booked - and I'm glad I did.

We saw it the night after the General Election and as I was in a deep depression I figured nothing would shift my humour but it was actually the perfect show for my state, it lifted me up with excellent ensemble work, fine individual performances, and the chance to have a quiet weep in the dark.  Four years ago, Irish playwright Conor McPherson was approached by Bob Dylan's record company with the suggestion of turning some of his back catalogue into a stage musical but McPherson - known for his powerful dramas which are haunted by unseen malign influences such as THE WEIR - politely refused.  He had never attempted a musical before and couldn't see how Dylan's work would fit into one.

But it preyed on his mind and the idea came to him of setting it in the Minnesota of 1934 (where Dylan would be born seven years later) - a mix of John Steinbeck and Southern Gothic.  He contacted the record company and soon received an e-mail saying Dylan gave the idea a green light and promptly sent him 40 Dylan albums with permission to use any of them in whatever style he wanted, which is wonderfully trusting for such a musical figure.  McPherson knew he wanted the music to be played on instruments used in 1934 and working closely with orchestrator and arranger Simon Hale, he has certainly achieved a very individual sound.  Some purists have argued that songs sound unlike the Dylan originals but it shows how protean the material is which spans from the 1960s onwards and includes a healthy dollop of 1970s and 1980s album tracks... no jukebox musical here.

All the action centres on a ramshackle Duluth boarding house run by husband and wife Nick and Elizabeth Laine, but the bank is threatening to foreclose on it and Elizabeth is slowly submerging into early dementia.  Their son Gene aspires to be a writer but drinks more than he types, and their adopted black daughter Marianne - abandoned as a baby by a non-paying guest - stoically nurses Elizabeth and acts as general housemaid to the guests.

One of their guests is Mrs Neilson, a widow who is waiting for her husband's will to be finalized; she and Nick are clandestine lovers who dream of running away to set up their own hotel with her inheritance.  The only other guests are Mr and Mrs Burke - living in reduced circumstances thanks to the Depression - and their retarded son Elias.  Marianne is five months pregnant but refuses to divulge the father's identity; her adopted father Nick is attempting a 'deal' with the local - and aged - shoe-peddler Mr Perry to marry Marianne for the companionship she will offer, but Marianne resists this arrangement.

One stormy night, two new guests - Reverend Marlowe and Joe Scott - arrive at the rooming house: the former says he is an itinerant holier-than-thou bible-seller and the other a black one-time-contender boxer but are they?  Life over the coming months gets no easier for the occupants of the boarding house until it culminates in Nick and Elizabeth alone at their dining table with the audience on the edge of their seats...

It sounds grim and, in places, it was - McPherson again shadows characters with the unforgettable trauma of dead children - and the action builds to an unbearably tense peak as Nick sees a way out, but the characters are all written in such a humane, non-judgmental way that you are drawn into their sad little stories, hoping for a resolution for them that will make life better.  The whole story is narrated occasionally by the town doctor who knows most of the occupants' secrets and a few of his own, in a style reminiscent of The Stage Director in Thornton Wilder's OUR TOWN: he tells the story but is also one step ahead of the action to describe their later lives.

In a nod to the radio days of the 1930s, the solos are sung into old radio microphones which gives the impression that these numbers are more to do with what is happening in the character's minds than simply singing a song to someone.  As I said, the idea of an evening of Bob Dylan songs once had me running a mile from the show but McPherson has chosen songs that were all fairly new to me - at best I knew five of the twenty listed songs - but they are woven so well into the fabric of the story and in the unified sound of Hale's 1930s instruments, that three in particular had me hooked: TIGHT CONNECTION TO MY HEART, SWEETHEART LIKE YOU and TRUE LOVE TENDS TO FORGET.

Conor McPherson directs the show beautifully, always keeping an air of fragile unease while eliciting a wonderful ensemble performance from his 19 cast members but I particularly want to mention the marvellous work of Katie Brayben as the mentally lost Elizabeth, a difficult role to place as most of it she spends glowering at the world from her chair but rising to deliver scorching versions of LIKE A ROLLING STONE - growling through the song of her now untethered life - and a heartbreaking FOREVER YOUNG; Anna-Jane Casey as the secretly doped-up Mrs Burke (and occasional drummer); Rachel John who is wonderfully sympathetic as Mrs Neilsen and in excellent voice; Finbar Lynch's weaselly Reverend Marlowe; Donald Sage Mackay's quietly despairing Nick; Gloria Obiyanyo's secretive and wary Marianne with a voice that sounds like a mix of Tracy Chapman and Joan Armatrading, and Shaq Taylor's proud boxer Joe Scott.  All this and Gemma Sutton too in an all-too-brief role as Gene's departing girlfriend.

Rae Smith's designs are as spare and lean as the Minnesota dust bowl while Mark Henderson delivers another masterclass in story-telling through lighting.  A special mention too for the four-man onstage band who weave such a great musical backdrop throughout the show.

GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY is on at the Gielgud until 1st February - run to see this truly remarkable show of people's power to love and endure...

SHAKESPEARE'S BIRTHDAY: TEN BEST MALE SUPPORTING PERFORMANCES

Happy birthday to William Shakespeare... born 453 years ago (and died 401 years ago).

Eight years ago I compiled four Top Ten lists of my favourite Shakespeare performances - lead & supporting male and lead & supporting female.

Eight years is a long time in theatre-going so to celebrate the greatest playwright ever, here is my updated list of favourite actors in key supporting roles; these are the ones that all new interpretations are judged against:

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR (in alphabetical order):

 MICHAEL BRYANT (Polonius - 1989)

RON COOK (Lear's Fool - 2010)

FINBAR LYNCH (Edmund - 1997)

DEREK NEWARK (Bottom - 1983)

ADRIAN SCARBOROUGH (Lear's Fool - 2014)

 JACK SHEPHERD (Puck - 1983)

ANTONY SHER (Lear's Fool - 1983)

STANLEY TOWNSEND (Kent - 2014)

PETER WIGHT (Polonius - 2017)

CLIVE WOOD (Edmund - 1983)

RICHARD III at the Almeida - a very fine Fiennes

My last Shakespeare play was the naff Irish stew version of TAMING OF THE SHREW so I was slightly worried what the Almeida's RICHARD III would offer up.  The Almeida is too keen on re-imaginings for it's own good but I really need not have worried, Rupert Goold has a firm grasp on the play and where he has strayed into the dangerous marshes of Director Theatre it at least is valid and frames the play in an interesting way.

Goold's production starts (and ends) with the excavation in the Leicester car park which reveals the skull of Richard III, his sword and finally his mis-shapen spine to a curious crowd of onlookers, the light fades out on this scene and slowly come up again, revealing Ralph Fiennes at the back of the stage, the skeleton made flesh.  I thought it actually worked, it ties in those recent events to a seemingly long-ago tale of political corruption and murder.

At over 3 hours, the production should feel long but it really doesn't as Goold keeps the action moving ever-forward.  I have seen previous productions which seemed to hit the buffers whenever Richard was not on stage but here nothing is allowed to get in the way of Shakespeare's thundering plot.

The modern-dress production has a simple set from Hildegard Bechtler - a semi-circular set of steps, sweeping curtains made of chains and a see-through stage over Richard's ignoble resting-place - which is a perfect setting for Goold's spare, stripped-down production; a spooky addition being spotlit silver skulls which appear on the back wall for every murder Richard sanctions.

Ralph Fiennes was magnificent as Richard, inhabiting the role with a slippery ease, turning on a groat from charming someone to do his bidding to cold-blooded sociopath.  He is such a skillful actor he didn't just play Richard as a monster but as someone who almost was cast in the role of villain from birth, the scene where his mother pours venom on him sees Fiennes slumped in a chair avoiding her gaze, you suspect he's heard it all before from her.  It was a performance of quicksilver cunning and intelligence, even when he was feigning piety to secure backing for his claim to be King, his mask slipped noticeably when Buckingham called him effeminate.

It's a world where people are only aware of Richard's murderous intent just as they are about to be (literally) stabbed in the back but there is only one person who knows how evil Richard is and that's the haunted and haunting Queen Margaret, the last living member of the deposed Royal family.  Here the ravaged Margaret of Anjou is played wonderfully by Vanessa Redgrave and Goold casting her in this role really lifts the character from being just a mere supporting character.  Although in only two scenes, Margaret haunts the play and the other characters.

In her first scene she curses all present that they know the depths of Richard's evil and one by one, as they suddenly face their destiny, Margaret's words come back to haunt them.  Vanessa's Margaret is dressed in dishevelled fatigues suggesting she has not changed since the Battle of Tewkesbury where her son was killed, and carries a damaged baby doll that Richard at one point smothers to her horror.  In a nice touch, when Margaret reappears to reproach the grieving Queen Elizabeth after the murder of her own children, Margaret leaves her battered baby doll with her, it's Elizabeth who must mourn a dead son.  As always, Vanessa was never less than thrilling.

They are complemented by other fine performances: Finbar Lynch was excellent as Buckingham, Richard's 'fixer' whose political double-dealing made the play all the more topical in these post-Brexit times, Scott Handy was very good as Clarence and made his speech of drowning all too real, James Garnon's Hastings was the very model of a careerist politician, always checking his Twitter account until it's too late, and Tom Canton was a suitably virile presence as Richard's nemesis Richmond.

Aislín McGuckin's Queen Elizabeth was suitably tigerish until she too is broken by Richard - Goold has him rape her in their final confrontation where he demands her daughter as his new wife.  This was the only directorial choice that I am unsure about although it certainly fits in with Elizabeth's sudden capitulation towards the end of the scene.  Susan Engel was exquisite as Richard's mother, The Duchess of York - her denunciation of him towards the end of the play was played with a marvellous delivery of fire and ice.  Interestingly Engel had played Queen Elizabeth in the famous RSC cycle of the War Of The Roses plays in 1963.

On 21st July RICHARD III will be the first Almeida Theatre production to be screened live in cinemas (although some filming will take place in performances before that) - I recommend it highly as the production is sold out for all performances at the theatre.

MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM at the Lyttelton - August in February!

Back in the day - actually it was 27 year's worth of days - I saw the National Theatre's production of MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM by August Wilson in the intimate Cottesloe Theatre.  It stayed with me as being an exploration of the burgeoning success of black jazz and blues performers and musicians within the 'race' recording companies while also boasting impressive performances from Carol Woods, Hugh Quarshie and Clarke Peters.

August Wilson died in 2005 after writing ten plays in which he wanted to show the experience of black Americans in the 20th Century.  The only other of these that the National has staged was Wilson's first play JITNEY with a visiting American company in 2001.  This played in the Lyttelton Theatre which is now the home of Dominic Cooke's revival of MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM. Everything old is new again!

I am sure Rufus Norris wants to give the production the widest exposure possible but it feels too exposed on the expansive Lyttelton stage - a vast empty space surrounds Ultz's recording studio set and proves too much of a distraction even with the quality of the performances.

Ultz also has a narrow, train-corridor room raise up and down at the front of the stage to show the downstairs musicians' area which could surely have been included somewhere on the main stage as Bob Crowley did for the 1989 Cottesloe version.  It reminded me too much of the set design for THE HAIRY APE at the Old Vic last year.

This was my only problem with Dominic Cooke's production which is hugely involving, after an admittedly slow-moving first hour, and he captures the undercurrents that swirl around an otherwise unexceptional recording session for Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey, "The Mother Of The Blues" and her touring band.

Cooke skillfully highlights the air of change that haunts the characters - Rainey's fame is slowly being eclipsed by Bessie Smith who has bigger record sales whereas 'Ma' Rainey's style of shouted blues are perceived as out of fashion.  The band have to face the changing style in music and one in particular, the explosively egotistical Levee, is preening that the record company man has asked him to supply him with songs - surely that means Levee will be a star in his own right soon with his own band?

The play needs a barnstorming actress to play 'Ma' Rainey and Cooke has the good fortune to have Sharon D. Clarke who can act up a fearsome diva storm as well as belt out the title song to the balcony.  Clarke has found a home at Rufus Norris' National Theatre with roles in THE AMEN CORNER and EVERYMAN and here she is in suitably imperious form.

After her manager (a suitably harassed Finbar Lynch) assures the record boss that she will be on her best behaviour, she sweeps in an hour late, says she will not sing her song with the new jazzy arrangement, she won't sing if she doesn't get her bottle of Coca-Cola and she definitely won't sing unless her stuttering nephew is allowed to perform the spoken intro to the song!  Clarke is excellent in the role and shades the divaness when 'Ma' is allowed a reflective moment in the studio.

There are excellent performances too from Lucian Msamati as Toledo, the seen-it-all pianist, Giles Terera as Slow Drag the bass-player, Clint Dyer as trombone-playing Cutler and O-T Fagbenle (a name I marvel at) as the dangerously ambitious Levee.  When his dreams of being a future jazz star are dashed by "the man" his violent response brings to the play to it's shocking conclusion and Fagbenle gave a kinetic, jangly performance.

There is also fine work from Lynch as Rainey's weary manager, Tunji Lucas as her stuttering nephew Sylvester and a nicely sly performance from Tamara Lawrance as Dussie Mae, Ma's latest young lover who one suspects will move from bed to bed as long as it keeps her in new dresses and spending money.

I would recommend MA RAINEY'S BLACK BOTTOM very much... and look forward to new plays such as MADONNA'S CAUSING A COMMOTION and DUSTY SPRINGFIELD'S GOIN' BACK!

And to finish off, how about the actual recording the play is based on - although the first photo on the video is actually Bessie Smith (oh and it fades out before the end)  'Ma' would NOT be happy!