Edith and Simone
Ronnie Verheyen
Genre: Biographic
Cast size: 12
Duration: Two Act
Ronnie Verheyen | Musical | Biographic | 5m, 6f, 1jrf
Short synopsis
- Synopsis
- Characters
Everybody knows the French singer Edith Piaf. Few people however, know that she had a half-sister who played an important part in her life.
To simply tell Edith’s biography, no matter how dramatic her life was, would be a repetition of earlier plays and films about the life of Piaf. It becomes a different story when that life is seen through the eyes of Simone.
This musical is the story of Simone. What it means for her to live in the shadow of the icon that is Edith Piaf; how to endure her tempers, to depend on her, emotionally as well as financially. All this combined with the strong conviction that with just a little bit of luck it is Simone that could have been in Edith’s place. Where does she now draw the line between naked self-interest and all the sacrifices she has to make? Where does love end and hate start? Or, as in many relationships, has envy blinded reality?
The play starts as a life-telling story, which is close to “La Vie En Rose”, but gradually turns into a tense confrontation between two strong characters. This confrontation is built on facts which sometimes bring a surprising new understanding of Piaf’s history that we thought we all knew. But historical facts are only those events that can be connected to a fixed date or time. For the rest, all that happened in the past is an inextricable knot of causes and effects, a twilight zone that has been kept together by memory and interpretation. Such an interpretation is ‘Edith & Simone’.
‘Edith & Simone’ contains 18 songs, some made famous by Piaf and some contemporary French pieces, together with a number of mood-setting pieces of underscore in a similar vein. Band parts are available for a 3 piece orchestra consisting of: Piano, Bass and Accordion.
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