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Sparrow\'s Song
by RL Nesvet
Piaf: Love Conquers All (Fringe Festival) reviewed August 17, 2007
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| Naomi Emmerson as Edith Piaf |
| Photo Credit: Dominic Manca |
| The set of Piaf: Love Conquers All, designed by actress-singer-director Naomi Emmerson, is surreal. The legendary singer's hotel room is rendered in stiff, flat, white panels, with the furniture painted on in black lines. It looks like a black-ink sketch on a giant piece of white paper. Here and there, a real, three-dimensional prop painted an intense pinkish-red—an umbrella or a bunch of roses—breaks the illusion.
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| Photo Credit: Caroline Brandes |
| This is all perfectly appropriate for a play about Piaf (Parisian slang for "sparrow"). For the woman who sang "La Vie en Rose," life was flat, except for rare roseate splashes of love. In Roger Peace's script, the dream of love gives the destitute girl who becomes Edith Piaf a reason to live, and sing, but also makes her vulnerable to debilitating despair. The multitalented Emmerson acts Piaf's dizzy highs and devastating lows with all the passion necessary, eschewing melodrama for true pathos, horror, and ecstasy.
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| Photo Credit: Dominic Manca |
| A second actress-musician, Stephanie Layton, plays an array of Piaf's lovers, mentors, and associates, of both genders. Layton's metamorphosis into the elderly Parisian nightclub impresario Papa is especially impressive. Wisely, Peace chooses not to have Layton, or anyone else, portray Marcel Cerdon, Piaf's beloved muse. Only Piaf can see him, and only her singing can bring him to life.
The best reason to see Piaf is the bilingual Emmerson's gorgeous singing of a number of Piaf classics, in French. These include "Milord," "Sous le Ciel de Paris," "Je Ne Regrette Rien," and, of course, "La Vie en Rose." Emmerson hauntingly recaptures Piaf's full-bodied vibrato but makes the songs fresh and powerful. It is through the carefully ordered repertoire that she tells the story of Piaf's emotional journey.
The show enjoyed several successful runs in Emmerson's native Canada. We New Yorkers should be honored that Piaf has chosen to pay us a visit.
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Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center
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Category: Musical
Written by: Roger Peace
Directed by: Naomi Emmerson
Produced by: LVR Productions/The New York International Fringe Festival
Opened: August 11, 2007
Closed: August 26, 2007
Running Time: 2 hours
Theater: Clemente Soto Velez Cultural Center
Address: 107 Suffolk Street
New York, NY 10002
Yahoo! Maps Directions
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Tickets: $15.00
None
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Creative Team
Written by: Roger Peace
Directed by: Naomi Emmerson
Assistant Director: Adam Blanshay
Produced by: LVR Productions
ACR: Sarah Ahlgren
Light Designer: Dominic Manca
Sound Designer: Naomi Emmerson
Set Designer: Naomi Emmerson
Set Construction: Pat Cann and Bob Cann
Costume Designer: Naomi Emmerson
Music Transcription: Wayne Gwillim
Accompanist: Stephanie Layton
Cast
Naomi Emmerson as Edith Piaf
Stephanie Layton as Ensemble
Crew
Stage Manager: Ivonne Herrera
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