The Watermill Theatre’s Piaf by Pam Gems is a resounding triumph!
Audrey Brisson returns to Newbury following her critically acclaimed run of Amélie in 2019. She gives a charismatic, tour-de-force performance as the “little sparrow” Edith Piaf, the French chanteuse who was brought up in a brothel and lived on the bawdy streets of Pigalle working as a prostitute together with her loyal friend Toine (Tzarina-Nassor). It’s a life filled with drugs, alcohol and many men, but she has a passionate desire to sing.
Brisson inhabits the character of Piaf with a raw energy, from her early years singing in clubs, through her many intense love affairs and husbands to becoming the highest paid international star before spiralling into developing cancer and a morphine-driven world filled with pain, until her untimely death at 47.
Her life was often precarious. During Nazi occupied France, she navigated messages to French prisoners, entertained officers and saved many children. She now had an agent, Marlene (Signe Larsson), who, although having had no experience in this role, manages her turbulent progress and becomes friends.
The highly talented ensemble of nine actor-musicians play a variety of instruments from accordions to brass and woodwind with a vibrant rich score by Sam Kenyon whilst impressively multi-roling the other characters. The exuberant street scenes perfectly capture the Parisian chaos.
Piaf’s story is told through her songs sung both in French and English with favourites such as "Lile Marlene", the close-harmony "Jimmy Brown" and the moving "Hymn to Love".
Signe Larsson makes a commanding Marlene Dietrich with a sensual rendition of "La Vie en Rose" and supports Piaf during her American tour, which turns out to be not a huge success. Boxing hero Marcel (Djavan van de Fliert) is her new lover, and, in a highly erotic scene where she leaps into his arms and the top of the piano, is lustful.
The scene with her last lover Theo (Oliver Nazareth Aston) is most moving and tender as Piaf slips into death.
Kimberley Sykes’s astute direction confidently moves the action on in a series of well-rounded vignettes complemented by Prema Mehta's striking lighting. Good Teeth set design is unfortunately uninspiring, two towering columns representing the streets.
The final song, "Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien" is so poignant and summarises Piaf’s whole heart-rending life.
But this evening belongs to Brisson, and this outstanding production richly deserved its tumultuous applause and standing ovation and is not to be missed.