Theatre

Powerful in its own right, McPherson’s Girl from the North Country confirms Dylan’s genius

Conor McPherson’s musical plumbs the emotional heartbeat and dramatic narrative of Bob Dylan’s songs, and will surely convince sceptics of the works’ literary power

Girl From the North Country by Conor McPherson runs at the 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin until July 30 and at the Grand Opera House, Belfast, from February 14 to 18, 2023. Picture: Johan Persson

When Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2016, cultural critics were divided. Did his songbook – recorded on almost 40 albums over more than five decades – really count as literature?

Conor McPherson’s Girl From the North Country, a musical inspired by Dylan’s work, plumbs the emotional heartbeat and dramatic narrative of almost 20 of his songs, and will surely convince sceptics of the works’ literary power.

In his elegantly constructed ...