Girl from the North Country

Girl from the North Country is playing at the Arden Theatre Company's F. Otto Haas Stage, 40 N. 2nd Street, through October 25. Previews started September 24 and opening night was September 30, so it's already well underway if you're planning to catch it.

The play is written by Conor McPherson and directed by Arden's producing artistic director Terrence J. Nolen. It's set in a run-down boarding house in Duluth, Minnesota, during the Great Depression, where a group of strangers cross paths and fill the guesthouse with music, hope and soul. The music comes from Bob Dylan, with songs like "Forever Young," "Hurricane" and "Like a Rolling Stone" reimagined with Tony Award-winning orchestrations by Simon Hale. Thirteen actor-musicians double as the orchestra, so the music is played live on stage—a staging style the Arden first explored in its 2018 production of Once.

There's some good pedigree behind the names here. McPherson's play was inspired by the work of Eugene O'Neill, and the Dublin-born writer has won a Laurence Olivier Award and five Tony nominations. Dylan, of course, is the 2016 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, and he also holds the 2012 Presidential Medal of Freedom and 11 Grammy Awards, drawing on his Greenwich Village folk roots of the 1960s for the songs that drive the show.

Single ticket prices start at $32. The running time is 2 hours and 30 minutes, plus a 15-minute intermission, so it's a full evening. Performances run through October 25 at the F. Otto Haas Stage, 40 N. 2nd Street.