Review: Piaf, The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic – ‘The BSA has found an extraordinary star in Maya Pope’

Many tremendous actors have played the lead role in Pam Gem’s play about the French chanteuse Edith Piaf since Jane Lapotaire first took the role in 1978. It is appropriate that Lapotaire trained at the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in the early 1960s and now it is the turn of the UK’s newest drama school, the Bristol School of Acting, to try to rekindle the magic.

The show is performed by graduating students and, as is usual with young actors taking their first tentative steps, some may not yet be the finished article. Indeed, a few of the mainly male roles are played a little too cod, and overly focus on getting easy laughs. Others, including Jamie Bligh as Piaf’s long time suffering agent, are more convincing and combine the required level of pathos and genuine emotional depth.

There is humour to be had within the play, which deploys a good degree of salty language as it explores the rise and fall of a great performer from her humble, sexually promiscuous, and dubious early life. We see Piaf warts and all, firstly as the street singer who mixes with the wrong sort before her ascendancy as the archetypal demanding performer whose sometimes boorish behaviour becomes more pronounced and self-destructive when she embraces both the booze and the needle.

We also witness Piaf’s painful vulnerability and charm, and especially her dedication to the songs that mean so much to her, along with an ability to drag every last ounce of meaning from the lyrics.

The lead role can therefore be an extremely rewarding, but equally demanding one to pull off. What is apparent, from the first moment that the curtain rises and we are introduced to Edith, is that the BSA has found an extraordinary star in Maya Pope. She is superb in every aspect, and her singing and all-round skilful portrayal is sheer class. Pope transcends a mere impersonation and captures the character completely.

The iconic songs, with their characteristic vibrato, are spot on. Pope sings these songs in both French and English and successfully handles Gems’ East End accent used to anglicise the dialogue and thereby reveal Piaf’s coarser edges.

When the second Act opens, Piaf is visibly older and a little less glamorous, and Pope again excels during this transformation. Yes, she has a shorter, more severe wig, but there is something else as well. A hint of world weariness, a slouch in the shoulders, and a look of someone who knows that this is all going to end badly.

With a simple set of a raised dais around which are hung a multitude of red wine bottles, designer Mayou Trikerioti introduces the odd chaise longue and rapid transformations which help propel the story along.

Daniella Fairhurst as Piaf’s friend from the old days, Toine, is a fantastic foil. She is the tart with a heart possessing a tremendous physicality that will have casting directors reaching out to her in the years to come.

The live six-piece band bring the songs to life and by performing them so faithfully they enhance every mood change as well as recreate the concerts and set pieces.

But it is Maya Pope who is the undoubted star of this show. I haven’t seen a young actor with the depth and maturity she displays in all the time I have reviewed theatre in Bristol. I urge you to see her, if only to hear for yourself the strikingly authentic rendition of Je Ne Regrette Rien at the close. Remember the name. It is certainly not the last you will hear of Maya Pope.

Piaf is at The Weston Studio, Bristol Old Vic from May 3-11 at 8pm, with an additional 3pm matinee show on Saturday. Tickets are available at www.bristololdvic.org.uk.

All photos: Craig Fuller

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