Review – Edith Piaf et Son Amour Fou
Audiences at Edith Piaf et Son Amour Fou certainly received an energetic French experience, but perhaps not quite the one they were anticipating. Appearing as France’s beloved chanteuse Edith Piaf, Larissa Zelenyuk shares the singer’s heartache and suffering through a combination of melodramatic soprano performances and theatrical stand-alone monologues. Whilst the title of the show already suggests there was a crazy or unstable element to Piaf’s character, any doubts that the audience had about the songstress’ sanity were quickly dispelled at last night’s show.
Performed entirely in French, sadly Zelenyuk’s efforts to convey a narrative about the destructive nature of love and contextualize the songs’ meaning for the audience failed somewhat. A show highly narrative-dependent, with extremely limited English and unclear stage acting, meant that many audience members appeared alienated, confused and restless as they observed this Piaf character deliver unintelligible psychotic ramblings whilst dismounting from oddly placed stage furniture. At these moments the mood in the room was of someone uncomfortably watching their mother after too many wines on the neighbour’s back deck.
The show worked best at times during the song performances, possibly due to the universality of music where the audience were receptive and felt they had something they could connect with. Zelenyuk has an obvious classically-trained voice, and whilst quite dissimilar from the Piaf she claimed to be, her hearty, large and varied vocal range engaged the audience as she performed well-loved renditions of “La foule”, “Milord”, “Mon Dieu”, “L’accordéoniste”, “Non, Je ne regrette rien” and “La vie en rose”. The choice of monophonic sound recordings to accompany the singer and minimalist set helped in recreating the atmosphere of Piaf’s 1930s stage performance.
I liked Zelenyuk and her absurdity and exhausting enthusiasm. I really did. However, this performance’s intent to relive Edith Piaf didn’t quite eventuate. If you are familiar with French language, or Piaf’s music, and don’t mind a bit of on-stage overhead plastic-chair twirling, then this might be exactly the show to see.
