19th July I regret nothing

So on Saturday night it was one giant leap for mankind and one small tram journey for 'TOM' and I, as we heading back to the theatre after an absence of over 16 months. The last thing we had been to see was back in Feb 2020 when we put on our glad rags to see 'National Trevor', Sandi Togsvik at the Theatre Royal. Now it was the turn of Edith Piaf at a Covid secure Nottingham Playhouse.

Settled into our seats with masks loosely in situ we both both rather surprised to see the stage suddenly flooded with a cast of about 10 performers; surprised because we had both been under the impression that it was a one woman show. Still in for a penny. After 16 months away it was initially a little surreal,  especially discovering that French songbird, Edith Piaf had been given an accent that wouldn't hve been out of place in the Queen Vic on East Ender and a potty mouth that made Adele's stage banter look positively tame in comparison. I even had to double check with TOM at the interval the Edith was in fact French and not born within the sound of Bow Bells, which shows just how much I knew about her beforehand.

Due to her waif like appearance and 4ft 8" frame she aquired the stage name la Mome Piaf (the little sparrow) and over the next couple of hours we followed her rise from a back street brothel inParis, through being discovered and transformed into an international star, her work with captives in prisoner of war camps, her traumatic love life, right through to her descent into drink and drug addiction and death at the early age of 48.

It wasn't the best thing either of us have ever seen, nor was it the worst, and the fact that it was a cast performance rather than the expected one woman show was a bonus. Even with the restrictions in place it was lovely just to be back doing something that we both used to do quite reqularly and took from granted before Covid 19 hit. Being on a tram of non mask wearing, non socially distancing, beer guzzling young adults was not quite such a cosy experience.

Roll on next week and a trip to the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, assuming we have not both been pinged by then. Although given the fact that neither of us uses a mobile and so have never downloaded the app makes that highly unlikely.