Michaela Burger and Greg Wain have put on a very good production homage to Edith Piaf.
It tells the tale of Piaf’s rise to global stardom from her humble beginnings of singing and begging in the streets of Paris to New York where 10,000 tried to buy a ticket to one of her performances. Eat your heart out modern day celebrities!
Burger, when narrating between songs, has a strong Australian accent. But when she sings she is as close to hearing Piaf this side of mortality.
She absolutely captures the tenor, pitch and range of Piaf, right down to the exaggerated rolling of the Rs in her singing. It would be an interesting exercise for Piaf fans to listen to a Burger recording against an original Piaf recording and see if their ears can tell the difference.
The story of Piaf is incredible and narrated well – explosive self-destruction with drugs and drink, love affairs too numerous to mention, car crashes, waxing and waning career moments and most poignantly one love affair in particular. The only true love of her life flying over to see her in New York.
The turmoil in her life resulted in her songs, originally written by others but latterly by herself. Berger is supported by an excellent rendition of guitar by Wain.
In the late days of the festival I would suggest that you get a ticket to see this show if you are a fan of Piaf; if you don’t know who Piaf was, you will after this show and you’ll become a Piaf fan.
Exposing Edith, Assembly George Square, Studio 3, 2.20pm.
[review rating=”4″ align = “left”]
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