Girl From the North Country's Sheila Atim on Her Newfound Love for Bob Dylan's Music and More

Girl From the North Country was one of the surprise successes of last year. The Conor McPherson play scored to the music of Bob Dylan has since transferred from the Old Vic to the Noel Coward Theatre for a fresh run, allowing more people to feast on the stirring vocals from, among others, the fast-rising Sheila Atim, who plays the pregnant Marianne in a bustling show set in Duluth, Minnesota during the Depression. The lively and eloquent Atim sounded happy to be back in a production she loves when she spoke to Broadway.com.

How does it feel to be back in a show that first stormed London last summer and has since brought you an Evening Standard Theatre Award nomination for emerging talent?
I think we all felt that [Girl] had legs, despite having been a relatively long run at the Vic, and that we had become very attached to our characters. Most of us are back because we really thought that we were on to something and that it wasn’t yet time to let the play go. 

Was it difficult to gather the energy afresh?
We’ve got a few new company members who are lovely and they are bringing their uniqueness to the piece, but at the same time it feels like business as usual; everything is largely the same. We had two months away but it kind of feels like yesterday, really; it’s amazing how much the body remembers.

Were you a Dylan devotee going into this?
He was one of those artists I obviously knew of, but I really was more aware of the covers that had been produced of his work as opposed to knowing much about him directly. He was among those artists I was sort of getting around to as one of those heavyweights that you should listen to and know why they are the people they are.

What are your thoughts about his music at this point?
I’m in every way a fan! And what [musical supervisor and arranger] Simon Hale has done with the music is fantastic: he just listened to all of us, to all of our different voices, and figured out from there what the narrative needed and what our attributes were as singers because a lot of us aren’t musical theater actors.

How would you describe [Irish writer-director][ Conor McPherson’s style for the piece, which seems to me to have its own raw energy?
I think for Conor that it’s all about truth and something that isn’t too polished and too refined. Without wanting to sound disrespectful toward other types of musical theater, he doesn’t like things too clean. The songs he has put into the piece suit lives that are kind of jagged, where everyone is struggling through something, whatever it may be.

Would you define what Conor has written as a play or a musical given that categories obviously make a difference when it comes to awards?
I’d call it a play with music. Even though it was born out of listening to Dylan’s music and has the intention of hosting Dylan’s music, the play is a stand-alone piece, so I think a play with music is the right way to go. At the same time, there will be some people who go and say that it feels like a musical because that’s the way they received it; it’s one of those ongoing debates.

What are your thoughts about Marianne as a character?
I think of her as a very lonely figure. She’s a young woman and, actually, in terms of the story there aren’t many women her age in the play. She’s also the only black person in the very near vicinity and within the family, so it’s almost as if she’s this island that’s floating in the world, and she still has this curiosity about her which eventually leads her to leave at the end.

Is it still the case that Dylan has yet to see a show saturated with his music?
We think he hasn’t been, but who knows for sure? I can’t imagine being Bob Dylan and turning up to a Bob Dylan show and walking through the front of house and being left alone, so I wonder if he were to come if he would enter through the stage door. But at the same time, I quite enjoy the almost mythical aura that we’ve created around whether or not he’s going to come.

In which case, maybe you wouldn’t know until after the fact?
We might catch a glimpse of someone in a big floppy hat and a large coat toward the back and think, “Is that him?” Or if we got a note at the stage door saying “Well done” and that’s it, I’d be really happy with that.

Does this feel as if it might catapult you more into the world of musicals?
That’s not how I’m looking at it, though it’s certainly true that this is the biggest show I’ve ever done. Girl for me hasn’t been about trying to make a move into musicals as a career—my goal is to keep moving onwards and upwards and that could come in many forms. What this has done is help me think about musicality: I play instruments, I write music, so this has given me food for thought. It’s given my creativity a massive boost.

Might we therefore get a Dylan-style album from you at some point?
I would love to! I’ve got songs on some terrible, terrible demos that are waiting for me to flesh them out. I’m quite old-school, and I love albums that feel like storybooks so that the material has an arc. I’ve listened to a lot of hip-hop and have been experimenting with different sounds, so, yes, this is definitely something I have my eye on.

How do you feel in yourself having made the shift from a possible career in medicine through to the success you have enjoyed as an actor at the National in Les Blancs, the Donmar’s all-female Shakespeare, Babette’s Feast on stage and now this?
It feels as if the universe is somehow involved, if that makes sense. I know that may sound like an esoteric comment, but the whole shift from wanting to be a doctor to moving into this world happened in an instant. It felt as if a cloud had dispersed from around my head, which since then has led to a kind of domino effect, and I hope that continues. I certainly don’t intend to slacken off or to take anything for granted.

So, you feel in a good place?
I do, especially because so much in this business is about being at peace with what you can’t control. At the moment, it’s about not worrying too much and just trying to embrace what happens next.