Newport actor takes to Cardiff stage in Bob Dylan-inspired show

Owen, who trained at ArtsEd in London, is in the cast of Girl from the North Country, a bold reimaging of the legendary sons of Bob Dylan by celebrated playwright Conor McPherson.

Owen said: "I cannot wait to come to Cardiff with this beautiful piece of theatre.

"It will reach audiences in a way that they probably won’t expect if they’re coming into it blind, which is more reason to take the trip to see it!

"I’m very lucky to call it my stage debut and will remember my time with such a beautiful company very well.

"I’m really excited to see my friends and family’s reaction and to catch up after being away for so long!”

He said: "I’m very familiar with the front of house and auditorium of WMC - having attended many productions which have toured there it was key in allowing me to see great theatre that was only a couple stops on the train. Regional theatre is so important!

"This time however, I will be lucky enough to stand on the stage with my friends and hopefully create a bit of magic that everyone will enjoy.”

Bob Dylan, whose music is featured in the production, said: "To be associated with Conor is one of the highlights of my professional life. It goes without saying the man is a genius for putting this thing together and I’m thrilled to be a part of the experience. My songs couldn’t be in better hands.”

Conor McPherson is a multi award-winning Irish writer/director.

Girl from the North Country is a powerful study of family and poverty, love and loss, which opened at London’s Old Vic Theatre in 2017 to rave reviews including one in the London Evening Standard, which described it as "beguiling, soulful and quietly, exquisitely heart-breaking".

It is set in a down-on-its-luck boarding-house in Dylan’s actual home-town of Duluth, Minnesota in 1934, when the Great Depression is biting hard.

The stories of this ensemble of drifters and dreamers are intertwined with more than 20 songs from Bob Dylan. It makes for a potent cocktail that has wowed audiences both nationally and internationally, with productions on Broadway, in Canada and Australia.

In McPherson’s opinion, the show’s appeal is simple.

He describes it as "the universality of Dylan’s music, which is loved all over the world. He manages to distil his subjective experience into something people relate to. It has the strange, odd contrariness of people’s real thoughts and it’s a language which allows us to transcend our normal way of thinking."

He said: "We try and wrap our story around his music. Often I think of them as parables from the Bible in a way, all the little stories that are in the show. They are on a simple, human level, rather than being big political statements. It’s Dylan’s artistry that transforms it all into something meaningful."

McPherson, known for haunting dramas such as The Weir and Port Authority, had never directed a musical prior to this and found himself revelling in the experience.

He said: "With a straight play, you have to make it work all the way through with just the people speaking. With a musical, someone says, ‘Would you like a blast of oxygen to give us all a break?’ and you go, ‘Yes, I would actually like that very much!"

His vision for the show came to him while he was walking beside the sea where he lives; it was a concept with which Bob Dylan was instantly enamoured.

The Depression era is a time that continues to resonate with us.

He said: "We all wonder how we would cope when the chips are down, because that’s who we really are. When all the distractions of modern life are stripped away, people think, ‘How strong am I?’ The truth is that humans are very resilient and we don’t need a lot of what we think we need. That’s a good thing to know."

For the 2022 tour two new songs have been added and McPherson has packed the cast with performers who "move the air when they come on" and he wants the audience to take away with them "an emotional catharsis, a feeling of the mystery of life as they understand it".