Just Down The Road: Hymn To Love '“ Homage to Piaf

This is a play about Edith Piaf, the French cabaret singer regarded as their national chanteuse as well as being one of the great international stars of the 1940s and 50s.

Many people who do not recognise her name will undoubtedly know her most famous song Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien, a song that – despite being sung in French – reached a global audience with its defiant message of survival through love.

The play is directed by Damian Cruden, artistic director of York Theatre Royal and features two actors, Olivier award-nominated actress Elizabeth Mansfield (Piaf) and Patrick Bridgman (the Pianist).

The play opens with Edith rehearsing in her Manhattan hotel room for her final concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. Yet for her the experience and even the hotel room she’s staying in hold memories.

Eight years earlier she had pleaded with her lover – the boxer Marcel Cerdan – to board a plane and fly from France to be with her. He did, but tragically died when his plane crashed en route. His death was compounded by the guilt she felt for the rest of her life for having pleaded with him to fly.

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