Simon Ward reviews I Love You Michael, Love Nadine at the Old Red Lion Theatre

This new play by Megan Marszal, who also plays the role of Cece, is steeped in the louche underworld of 1980s Paris to the tip of its unsmoked Gauloises. The set (design by Rhys Cannon) is impeccably French, and the plot is like a mash-up of Jean-Jacques Beineix’s Betty Blue and Luc Besson’s Nikita. Almost incredibly it is based on real events in the life of Nadine Vajour, a young nightclub singer. Her whirlwind romance with career criminal Michael Vajour was to lead her in utterly unexpected directions.

Under the direction of Charlotte Sheehan, the play moves back and forward in time – from scenes in the past showing young Nadine (Ellie Baldwin) falling head over heels for the irrestible sex-appeal of Michael, to the present where Cece is about to meet the older Nadine (Kate Harbour) in her home for the first time.

As the play opens we are in the nightclub as young Nadine is finishing her set, only for her to coolly announce from the stage that there is a policeman in the crowd who has come to arrest her. We further learn, perhaps to our horror, that her baby daughter is outside sleeping in her car.

Flash forward to today and Cece is trying to work out a way to confront the woman whom she believes to be the mother who abandoned her. In spite of her hopeless disguise and obvious incompetence Nadine decides to let her in anyway, perhaps herself intrigued as to the young woman’s intentions.

The links between scenes in the past and the present are cleverly interwoven, and tension builds throughout, not least thanks to the efforts of a strong cast who rise to the demands of the piece with aplomb, up to and including belting out a Piaf classic. Not for the first time, I am struck by the spine-tingling privilege of seeing such excellent work right up close.

Young Nadine’s utter infatuation with Michael at first sight is always tinged with danger – she knows that he is capable of violence, but she doesn’t care, is perhaps even turned on by it. She claims to stay out of his ‘business’ dealings but she knows enough, and she learns how to handle a gun. She is devastated when she finds out she is pregnant – their lifestyle is hardly conducive to bringing up a child – but Michael is overjoyed when the baby arrives.

It’s a testament to the power of the play that the the nailbiting helicopter-based jailbreak setpiece is not the climax. The devastating revelations in the room where Nadine and Cece clash in ways that neither of them can have anticipated are almost too much to bear. This is the epitome of Parisian chic with a deliciously insouciant dash of devil-may-care – there is always time to finish your glass of wine. It is the story of a life lived for love, for good and ill.

I Love You Michael, Love Nadine is running at the Old Red Lion Theatre, 418 St John Street, London EC1V 4NJ until Saturday 21st June