Pam Gems’s Piaf premiered in 1978 at the RSC’s The Other Place, its stage for new and often experimental work. Starring Jane Lapotaire, who would go on to win a Tony for her performance when the production transferred to New York, it had been conceived as a play with music, with a spare staging and unsparing focus on the brutal aspects of Édith Piaf’s existence. For the 1993 revival, with singer Elaine Paige in the title role, the songs were expanded and so was the running time.
This new production for the Watermill is closer to the 90-minute, trimmed-down, sentimentalised version that Gems rewrote for London’s Donmar Warehouse in 2008. Like its predecessors, it relies heavily on the charisma of its leading performer, who carries the burden of the storyline as a carousel of characters whirls around her. It relies no less heavily on the skills of the ensemble to deliver sharp characterisations without blurring multiple roles – 31 in the original; here, in the cleverly used tiny space of the converted mill, around 20-plus (an estimate; not all are listed in the programme).
Director Kimberley Sykes and musical supervisor Sam Kenyon push their cast even further by having them play all the musical accompaniments, physically bringing their instruments into the action to deliver not only tunes but also impressive sound effects, including of the two car crashes that added to the damage already inflicted on Piaf’s frail body by early poverty, amplified by drink and drugs. With so many demands made on them, a mostly young cast cannot always find the depth to convey every one of their multiple characters satisfyingly (Signe Larsson’s Marlene, offering a person beyond the Dietrich imitation, merits special mention).
Audrey Brisson in the title role starts with an advantage: she is French Canadian, the rolling “r”s come naturally. However, she is more than a soundalike Piaf (although this in itself is no small achievement). In 2019, I praised her outstanding performance as Amélie, in this same theatre, for its emotional nuance. To this quality she adds, especially in the second act, a depth and grit that earn her a well-deserved standing ovation.
• Piaf is at the Watermill theatre, Newbury, until 17 May
