PIAF. To 22 June.
York
PIAF
by Pam Gems
Theatre Royal To 22 June 2002
Tue-Sat 7.30 Mat Sat & Thur 20 2.30pm
Signed 19 June
Audio described 21 June & 22 Mat
Runs 3hr 10min One interval
TICKETS 01904 623568
Review Timothy Ramsden 6 June
Downbeat account of a singing career has style but the impact is muffled.
When we trooped in to the seventies premiere of Pam Gems' bio-play at Stratford-upon-Avon's alternative venue, The Other Place, we knew the kind of thing to expect. This was where the RSC got tough and Jane Lapotaire's early cry, 'You've seen me drink, now watch me piss,' was par for the rough ride.
At York, where the line goes for little, a round of audience applause greets the initial announcement of Piaf and Elizabeth Mansfield's slight figure caught at the back of the stage by a glaring spotlight.
But this is no tribute entertainment; not even Blues in the Night; more Sparrers Can't Sing. Piaf doesn't get a note out, and we're whisked back to her early days, when the future darling of French audiences was singing in the street for centimes, ignored by the people who'd later fill theatres to listen to her.
Designer Nigel Hook strips the stage bare, deploying a couple of mobile staircases and a large wardrobe-like structure to create most locations for the action. Damian Cruden adopts a free-flow style, characters visible around the edges, reminding of their presence from what's just happened, or preparing to enter the action. The impression's of an unstable world: Paris lives through German occupation – Piaf becoming a singularly inefficient Resistance sympathiser – while the singer herself endures steep career decline.
Fragility is the key to Mansfield's Piaf. Away from the microphone she's terrorised by the gangsters she rubs along with in early days. Her existence in two worlds is caught as Jane Stabler changes in front of her, from Dietrich's blonde wigged elegance into the plain-clothed Toine - the friend from their old whoring days, whom Piaf calls for as her present world free-falls through short-term husbands, emotional cascades and drug-dependency.
Cruden relies overmuch on those moving stairways in a production that overstays the material's interest; more emotional rages, more car crashes. More concision is needed. And the leisurely production style needs better acting; Mansfield and Stabler carry the show. Though Nicholas Blane is a sinister, silent presence as her drugs-supplier in later scenes, the other acting is strained.
Piaf: Elizabeth Mansfield
Leplee/Georges/American Barman/Pusher: Nicholas Blane
Toine/Marlene: Jane Stabler
Musical Director/Arranger/Pianist: Dean Austin
The Manager/Agent/Emile/American Officer: Terence Mann
Theo/Jacques/2nd German Soldier/2nd Sailor/Lucienne/Angelo: Ben Paterson
Jako/Eddie/1st German Soldier/1st Sailor/Jean: Gil Darnell
Pierre/Paul/Marcel/Louis: Peter Landi
Inspector/Legionnaire/Butcher/Waiter/Physio: Mark Stratton
Josephine/Madeleine/nurse: Katharine Rose
Accoridionist: Janie Armour
Director: Damien Cruden
Designer: Nigel Hook
Lighting: Richard G. Jones
Sound/Projection Design: Matt Savage
Choreographer: Sheila Carter
2002-06-13 09:40:09