Piaf: Sex, Drugs and Little Sparrow

Pour moi, the Donmar Warehouse has done to London theatre what Louis XVI did to the French in 1789 – sparked a revolution. Messieurs Adelphi, Lyceum, and Dominion, bless them, have taken one look at London’s booming tourism industry and seen £££s. And from a business perspective, your Joseph’s and We Will Rock You’s, are steady earners – so why change a winning formula? Well, what they gain in revenue, they lose in credibility.

From a performing arts point of view, the Donmar puts the magic back into theatre – everything it touches commands critical acclaim, be it from Time Out, The Guardian or even myself. But with acclaim comes pressure, the pressure to keep the bar raised – to keep matching past performances. And with only 250 per showing, seats are at a premium. You can imagine then, how chuffed I was to get my hands on a ticket to see Piaf last week.

The diminutive Argentine actress Elena Roger, as the little sparrow, put in a steady first hour or so – nothing spectacular. I was anxious for her. Pam Gem’s Edith Piaf is a tough act to play; scatty, unwholesome and void of the je ne sais quoi most French dames possess, with a sexual appetite that shouted wartime insecurity at you.

As each toy boy came (literally) and went, her performance upped a little. The more morphine injected and hair lost, the more signs there were of the big vibrato; her frailty and stage presence were synonymous, one in hand with t’other. The deliberate lack of an interval kept the audience vigilant; a climax was brewing. But it wasn’t so much the storyline that had the audience on their feet applauding for five minutes, but Roger’s ability to waver from average to outstanding. As she bowed for the second time, she looked drained. Piaf had worked her to the bone.

The play wasn’t perfect, but it never set out to be. It was perfectly rough around the edges, perfectly vulgar in parts, and the audience was perfectly faced with adversity throughout. Did I enjoy it? Yes, je ne regrette rien…

Heads up: from 25 September, Four Wedding’s very own ‘Duckface’, Anna Chancellor, plays the lead in Strindberg’s Creditors, directed by Love Actually’s Alan Rickman (guess the link? clue is Romcom extraordinaire).

Piaf finished at the Donmar theatre on 20 September, but it’s not too late to catch it in London. The show will transfer to the Vaudeville Theatre from 16 October.

Box Office: 0870 060 6642