PIAF at the Donmar - This is London

Pam Gems’ reworking of her 1978 account of the life of Edith Piaf

whizzes through her 47 years in not much more than 90 minutes.

The French chanteuse from the gutter started performing on the

streets and went on to make and lose a fortune, thrilling audiences

from the cafés of Paris to the concert halls of New York.

Diminutive Brazilian actress Elena
Roger (recently a first-rate Evita) makes
for perfect physical casting as the tiny
songstress in a simple black dress who
was nicknamed the ‘Little Sparrow’.
When she sings, she almost captures
the heartrending emotion behind the
songs of lost love and vulnerability,
though her accent occasionally muffles
the impact of the spoken dialogue.
Whilst never probing too deeply
below the surface, the kaleidoscope of
short scenes mimic Piaf’s whirlwind life
of handsome young lovers (it’s hard to
keep track) and chart her declining
health, exacerbated by a string of
crippling car crashes and an addiction to
booze and morphine.
More essence than analysis, it
provides a welcome opportunity to hear
those unforgettable songs – including
La Vie En Rose, and, of course, the
defiant Non, je ne regrette rien – and
Jamie Lloyd’s spartan production, played
out against Soutra Gilmour’s drab, grey
unwelcoming set has, appropriately, the
swift, thrusting force and lack of
intimacy of one of Piaf’s seedy,
backstreet encounters.
Louise Kingsley