And that music just happens to be the music of Bob Dylan.

For those who are not familiar with the Broadway and West End hit, it can be hard to see the distinction between a musical and a play with music.

If the characters are the ones singing the music, and there is at least equal billing between the Bob Dylan soundtrack and the character's dialogue - if not more music than words - surely it has to be musical? But sitting down to see the Australian production in Melbourne - ahead of its run at the Canberra Theatre - it's easy to see what McCune means.

The hints are subtle at first. There isn't a curtain to raise, the band lives onstage with the action, and even as performers take to the stage, it's clear the lines between actor and musician are blurred as some take a seat at the drum kit or raise a harmonica to their lips, before getting into character. For the role, even McCune herself has learnt how to "tinker" on the piano to play a song or two.

But it's more than that. While other musicals see the songs as an extension to the plot line, a way of advancing the story, it's almost like Girl From The North Country uses Dylan's music to take a moment before moving on. For the most part, the songs don't speak directly to the action, and Dylan himself has nothing to do with the story - Girl From The North Country is not a jukebox musical. But somehow the songs create a soundtrack that somehow captures the essence of the story.

"The songs are not even the inner monologue of a character, the action of the play stops for a moment and then there's a song and a breather of the action. And it somehow elevates the emotion of the characters," McCune says.

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"It's not directly expressing where their heads are at, but it gives the audience a moment just to catch up using music.

"It's a little bit like magic realism. Sometimes you feel like you're going into another time, another place - well, you are - and are these characters really there? It's ghost-like, in a way."

And the songs in question? Dylan approached playwright Conor McPherson and gave him full access to his music to create a workaround. The result is not a musical filled with all of the hits. Some will be familiar - including Hurricane and Like a Rolling Stone - but others will only be known by fans - in fact, there were a couple that made the cut that even had Dylan questioning what McPherson saw in them. And in fact what is included doesn't necessarily even sound like a Dylan song (the rendition of Make You Feel My Love sounds more like Adele's version, for example).

But part of what makes Bob Dylan's uniquely his are the lyrics. There's a poetic nature to them. And McPherson's writing mirrors that.

McCune describes it as a beautiful alchemy.

"He's a gorgeous playwright, Conor McPherson ... I think that the writing of Conor McPherson is insightful dialogue," she says.

"Quite often I'll be on stage - because I'm on stage most of the night - and I'll hear bits of it and think I've never heard that before, in that way. He is insightful. The wonderful part about theatre is the continual evolution of a piece, particularly this one."

McCune plays Elizabeth, a wife and mother of two - one her adopted daughter, Marianne (played by Chemon Theys). This in itself brings its own struggles as Marianne is African American, and it was not the norm in 1930s America to have a mixed-race family.

What's more, Elizabeth is struggling with early onset dementia, and the guesthouse she owns with her husband, Nick (played by Peter Kowitz), is struggling to stay afloat in the middle of The Great Depression.

It's within this guesthouse in Duluth, Minnesota - Dylan's birthplace and the only thing connecting him to the storyline - that Girl From The North Country's story converges. It doesn't tell the story of just one family but rather captures a moment in time and intertwines the lives of those who have found their way to the guesthouse in the days leading up to its closure.

All, in some way or another, are at a turning point in their lives. And as the story plays out, as they all search for a future, and hide from the past, they find themselves facing unspoken truths about the present.

"It touches lightly on lots of issues, interestingly," McCune says.

"It doesn't delve into them in a deep way. But you get the feeling that the undercurrent of the piece is that there are some very unsettled observations of racism, disability, and things like that, but the characters don't dwell upon it, they're just living it, trying to find their way through, which is really nice. I think that's where the hope is."

For McCune, this meant exploring what it was like to have dementia - which is easier said than done. Dementia itself is a broad umbrella term that includes many different types, and for everyone that it affects, it can look vastly different.

And it's a new side of McCune that we haven't seen before. On-screen we think of McCune as Blue Heelers' Maggie Doyle or Sea Patrol's Kate McGregor, and on stage, she's been in the likes of The King and I, The Sound of Music, Cabaret and Guys and Dolls.

But there is something about seeing her in Girl From The North Country, playing a character who has been betrayed by her mind. It's part of what drew McCune to the character, her research taking her online to explore how she was going to play Elizabeth.

"You start to realise that it's such an individual experience for everybody," McCune says.

Girl From The North Country is at the Canberra Theatre Centre from August 25 to September 3. For tickets go to canberratheatrecentre.com.au.

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