Cabaret Whore Presents: La Poule Plombee at the Marlborough Theatre, Brighton (as part of the Brighton Festival Fringe).
Rating: five stars ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
The Brighton Festival Fringe ended this weekend and with this glorious act it finished in triumphant style.
Sarah-Louise Young and Michael Roulston, well known on the London cabaret scene, are a talented duo who not only write their own material but also perform it to perfection.
Their latest creation switches from their usual sophisticated cabaret act and allows Young to appear in the persona of a tortured French chanteuse, always in the shadow of Edith Piaf. Not accepted by the French public as another Little Sparrow, she has been cruelly dubbed La Poule Plombee, which roughly translated means ‘Strumpet Pigeon’, and forced into exile where she seeks the acclamation of Brighton’s cultured classes.
During the course of an hour, which flies by all too quickly, she speaks and sings of her life and loves. The songs are all brand new and are a delightful mixture of the comic and bittersweet.
She is aided by the excellent Roulston, in the guise of Mu Mu, her piano playing accompanist and stooge. He is all that remains of her one-time, nine-strong band – The Miserycords – the rest all walked out on her while performing on the cross channel ferry.
In addition to his musical accompaniment, he adds his vocal talent as well. There is delicious comedy in ‘That Wonderful Night’, a number that has them reminiscing, except that their recollections all contradict.
More comedy follows in ‘Baggage’, a number that mixes emotional baggage with a love story concerning a baggage handler at Luton Airport. The play on the word ‘carousel’ is evocative of Jacques Brel.
‘Perfect Papa’ is a moving remembrance of the chanteuse’s father, a butcher, who gave her, when she was a child, a pig for a pet – it was more of a sister to her. The ‘moving’ soon turns to macabre.
In contrast there is beauty in the ballads ’Love is Everything’ and ‘Thin Skin’.
The writing throughout is clever; the lyrics witty and truly Gallic. Young’s voice is as amazing as her sense of comic timing and finely nuanced acting.
This is cabaret at its consummate best and raises a Fringe show to a much higher plane.
Barrie Jerram
Cabaret Whore Presents: La Poule Plombee continues at Fontaine’s Bar, London on 21 July; the Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh from 5 to 28 August; and London Wonderground on 6 September.
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