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Gate, Dublin Pam Gems’ play may have dated, but the tragic arc of Édith Piaf from street urchin to torch singer is still compelling, told through music that rings with dramaEdith Piaf’s rise from singing on Paris streets to selling out Carnegie Hall is one of the great legends of musical stardom. In Des Kennedy’s staging of Pam Gems’ bio-musical, the focus is on the singer’s decline and fall, her troubled life and early death. Piaf is centre stage throughout, in a role split between Zara Devlin as the gifted young urchin, and Camille O’Sullivan as the fully formed artist.While Gems’ play has not aged well, it provides a framework for 24 songs, linked to Piaf’s life story, which is sketchily told. With the exception of Marlene Dietrich (Aoife Mulholland) advising Piaf to focus on her technique, and Toine (Kate Gilmore), Piaf’s buddy from the streets of Belleville, the other characters are flimsy, with fine actors such as Rory Nolan and Phelim Drew underused. O’Sullivan, a dazzling musical interpreter in her solo shows, seems constrained by the role, her instinct for improvisation perhaps hampered by the need to impersonate such a vocally distinctive and well documented artist as Piaf. Continue reading...