Troika Productions proudly presented Pam Gems' biopic masterpiece, 'Piaf'. This is a hard-hitting play, featuring many of the songs which made Edith Piaf famous including...

Photo by Richard Battye.


• La Vie en Rose
• Mon Dieu!
• Hymne a L'Amour
• La Foule
• La Belle Histoire d'Amour
• Les Trois Cloche
• Milord
• Les Amants d'un Jour
• Bravo Pour le Clown

Bookings are now available for...

...which incorporates the same musical ensemble as the full show, i.e. Margaret Griffiths (vocals) and Stephen Powell (keyboard) with new-addition Tracey Burton on accordion. This act consists of some of Edith Piaf's most powerful and moving songs and is available for bookings at theatres, hotels, restaurants, clubs etc. For further information please Contact Us.

Download Demos of Songs from the Show... [mp3 format]

Les Feuilles Mortes

Milord

Mon Dieu!

Piaf is the story of a Parisian prostitute whos is plucked off the streets and made into a star. In a story similar to Marilyn Monroe's, she totters through life as the string of men, drink and drugs take their toll on her. The musical production features excellent voices from everyone concerned, doing full justice to the songs of Piaf.

They are sung in their original French by Margaret Griffiths and are reproduced scarily accurately. Well directed and well played out, the supporting actors change roles frequently and the story rolls on and goes through the life of the ailing star who captured the French imagination.

****

"Central to Troika's revival of Pam Gems' 1971 play Piaf are the songs of Edith Piaf which were superbly performed, mostly in French, by Margaret Griffiths who gives us a real sense of the passion and tone of the original. Set mostly in a cabaret club it tells the story of the singer's career and her troubled relationships with men."

"The death of Edith Piaf in October 1963 provided an outpouring of grief with thousands of mourners halting Parisian traffic for the first time since the end of World War II.

Directed by Stephen Barnes, Pam Gems's highly entertaining biopic vivaciously portrays a life which reads like a dark urban fairy tale and becomes the inevitable backdrop to the songs that made Piaf famous. The daughter of street entertainers and granddaughter of a brothel madam, Edith Gassion left home aged 15 to sing in the streets of Paris. It's there, amid the prostitutes and petty thieves, that we first meet her with her companion Simone (Olivia Hill).

Contrasting her heart shredding singing voice with an appropriately-earthy Cockney accent, Margaret Griffiths immediately stuns as the naïve, nervous teenager plucked from obscurity by Louis Leplée (played with aplomb by director Stephen Barnes), the club owner who renamed her La Môme Piaf (The Little Sparrow).

Birmingham's Troika theatre company deserves to match the sell-out success of its run of "Death of a Salesman" in 2003. Never flinching from the less attractive qualities of its subject, Piaf overflows with colour, chutzpah and humanity."

****
Nadine McBay, Metro


"The tragic yet gripping story of Edith Piaf, a Parisian prostitute plucked from the streets and shaped into a star, bears many similarities to the life of Marilyn Monroe as she staggers through life shackled by the ill effects of drink, drugs and a string of men...

"Not an easy role to fill by any stretch of the imagination yet somehow the true spirit of Piaf’s tortured and somewhat wretched life is resurrected in this commendable Troika production. Margaret Griffiths rendering as Piaf could best be described as ‘scarily accurate’ and typifies the amazing versatility of the woman.

"A rare treat to see a production of this quality on the doorstep and a brave and fitting conclusion to the Parish Council's French Normandy weekend."
Henley News

PIAF traces the events of the singer's life as seen through her own eyes, emphasising the pain, degradation and sheer unbridled passion which so characterised Piaf's life.

In 1935 Edith Gassion was 'discovered' by a nigthclub owner, Louise Leplee, singing on the streets of Paris. He immediately realised the potential of this 'little woman with a voice too big for her body,' renamed her "La Mome Piaf," the little sparrow, and the rest has become legend. From her insignificant beginnings; her father was a contortionist, her mother a fairground worker, she rose to become an International Chanteuse, the French Diva, enjoying tours in France, Europe, Britain and the United States, throughout her career which spanned thirty years.

  Download the Flyer

Her rise to fame, however, was anything but 'La Vie en Rose', for she suffered de rigeur from the wounds she endured as a young girl: insecurity, self-abasement, anger, obsessive passion and a constant quest to be loved and accepted - a maelstrom which took its toll upon her mental stability as the pressures of her fame increased. Towards the end of her life, Piaf, turned to drugs to try to find comfort and solace, never able to believe that she was loved by countless thousands of fans the world over which was reflected in the size of her funeral in 1963 when so many lined the streets of Paris to bid her farewell.

By turns Pam Gems' play is amusing, tragic, controversial, uplifting and heart-breaking. A tour-de-force enhanced and complimented by the songs which have moved audiences since they were first performed.

A Tragedy! A Comedy! A Passion!
The French Diva! The Little Sparrow!
PIAF!

This professional production of nine actors was lead by Margaret Griffiths who took the role of Piaf. Margaret is a hugely experienced and acclaimed classical actress and singer with a repertoire ranging from Shakespeare to Sondheim, Arthur Miller and Oscar Wilde.

The production saw Stephen Barnes as Director. Stephen has had much critical acclaim for his direction of 'Hamlet', 'The Importance of Being Earnest' and 'Death of a Salesman' (which was performed to sell out audiences at Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2003) for Troika Productions. Stephen Powell as Musical Director was another very experienced and successful member of the team. In addition to his extensive career as a musical director, Stephen is an established composer, arranger, vocal coach and pianist/keyboard player, who has written and conducted music for a gala concert at the Royal Albert Hall and played orchestral keyboards, touring Britain with Roger Daltrey, Paul Young, Alice Cooper and Gary Brooker.