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The Review - THEATRE by ILLTYD HARRINGTON
Published: 21 August 2008

French tragedy without tears

REVIEW: PIAF
Donmar Warehouse

SHE was a hard act to follow so no one tried or dared.
Well, not until Pam Gems’ version of her life became a highlight in the West End and went on to Broadway in 1981, where Jane Lapotaire picked up a Tony Award.
Later, the film version scooped up Oscars with Marion Cotillard in tremendous form as a Parisienne Sparrow clawing her way upward.
Now it’s Elena Roger’s turn. Like Piaf she’s tiny.
For a year at the Aldelphi she reigned as another small woman, Evita, a champion of Argentina’s “shirtless ones”.
Now she is the symbol of the Parisienne working class, describing all the odds and sods of their desperate lives.
Piaf died in 1953 aged 47. Her life had begun amid the low life and ended eaten up by cancer, drugs, drink, an entourage of violent and parasitical men, as well as a steady sturdy line of handsome young lovers.
Her frail body right to the end hurled back defiance and symbolised the spirits of her city and class.
Listening now to her recordings of La Vie En Rose, Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien and Milord can still raise the hairs on the back of my head.
Jamie Lloyd’s direction aided by Soutra Gilmour’s minimalist design is sure-footed and rapid. It’s all over in less than two hours.
A cast of seven men and three women fill in the historic backdrop. Katherine Kingsley is Marlene Dietrich, a nurse and Piaf’s secretary.
Elena Roger was originally a singer and a dancer; as an Argentinean she excelled at her Tango. She obviously applied herself earnestly to study Piaf and her physical frailty.
At times she becomes worryingly brittle standing there in her simple black dress and the voice that echoes out of the deepest vaults of Paris. Roger ages angrily and the self-inflicted wounds are red raw.
But what happened to my compassion? It never surfaced. As Evita, Roger told Argentina not to cry for her.
Perhaps as Piaf she was giving me the same advice. The run is sold out and a transfer is inevitable. Judge for yourself.
Until September 20
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