PIAF. To 20 September.
London.
PIAF
by Pam Gems.
Donmar Warehouse 41 Earlham Street WC2H 9LX To 20 September 2008.
Mon-Sat 7.30pm Mat Wed & Sat 2.30pm.
Audio-described 13 Sept 2.30pm (+Touch Tour 1.30pm).
BSL Signed 15 Sept.
Captioned 1 Sept.
Runs 1hr 40min No interval.
TICKETS: 0870 060 6624.
www.donmarwarehouse.com
Review: Timothy Ramsden 16 August.
The Sparrow soars magnificently but the rest of the flock are grounded.
In York, in 2002, Piaf lasted an excessive 3 hours 10 minutes. At Sheffield in 2004, it ran 2 ¼ hours. In 2001 that master of actor-musician fluidity John Doyle took 2 hours 5 minutes at Newbury. All with an interval; even so, Jamie Lloyd’s new production comes in ten minutes under the fastest of these. And it shows.
It shows in the early scenes of Edith Piaf’s rise from street-singer to concert-hall fame, which flash past as little more than a story-so-far montage. Lloyd establishes a dark, smokily sinister Paris on the brick-floored street of Soutra Gilmour’s set, lit with what seems perpetual reluctance by Neil Austin.
But this incessant moodiness allows no scene-changing, merely the deployment of a few chairs when necessary. So the intrusion of Piaf’s old criminal associates into her new world flashes by with little impact. Her wartime Resistance work, however incomplete her understanding of it, has never seemed so insignificant; it’s only in a later confirmatory reference back, that it’s entirely clear she was knowingly involved with the Resistance.
Instead Lloyd concentrates on the final path to the drug-befuddled Piaf seen at the very opening. Even here, the relationship with her doomed lover, the boxer Marcel, has no time to breathe as cause for her depression and turning to drugs. The struggle between the street-girl and successful singer with a fortune she treated like the occasional windfall from a passer-by, the generosity that soured with a mind going out of control as she gained increasing prestige, is reduced to a one-thread story of addiction.
In this context, surrounding performances, whether strong or adequate, have little chance to register – even the reunion with old associate Toine passes too casually, despite Lorraine Bruce’s characterful showing. And, yes, Elena Roger is as forceful and beautiful a singer as expected – and it is a great gain to have a fine singer rather than an actress who can sing well-enough.
And she plays the offstage Piaf with conviction, while movingly presenting the onstage wreck of the final concerts. Roger is outstanding. But there’s too little built around her here.
Bruno/Legionnaire/American Sailor/Jacques: Shane Attwooll.
Edith Piaf: Elena Roger.
Leplee/Barman/Doctor/Monsieur Vaimber: Michael Hadley.
Toine: Lorraine Bruce.
Emil/German Soldier/Louis: Steve John Shepherd.
Jean/Raymond/German Soldier/Yves: Luke Evans.
Eddie/American Soldier/Lucien/Theo: Leon Lopez.
Police Inspector/Marcel/Nurse/Pisher: Phillip Browne.
Little Louie/Georges/American Sailor/Charles: Stuart Neal.
Marlene/Madeleine/Nurse: Katherine Kingsley.
Director: Jamie Lloyd.
Designer: Soutra Gilmour.
Lighting: Neil Austin.
Sound: Christopher Shutt.
Composers: Ben & Max Ringham.
Musical Director: Nigel Lilley.
Wig/Hair: Richard Mawbey.
Dialect coach: Penny Dyer.
Fight director: Terry King.
Assistant director: Abbey Wright.
2008-08-19 01:38:12