Edith Piaf in Istanbul for her 100th birthday

ISTANBUL

The Yerevan State Youth Theater, invited by the Theater Boyalı Kuş (Painted Bird), will be performing in Istanbul for its first time in a play that focuses on Edith Piaf’s love and longing for Marcel Cerdan on Oct. 15 and 16 at the Şişli Municipality City Cultural Center.

Feminist theater company Boyalı Kuş celebrates its 15th birthday in 2015 with “Edith Piaf-Marcel” on Piaf’s 100th birthday. The play is directed by Hagob Ghazanchyan, while acclaimed, young actress Mariam Ghazanchyan plays the role of legendary French singer Edith Piaf.  

The diva of France, Piaf, also known as the Little Sparrow, was born in 1915. She started singing on the streets of Paris when she was a child. After Louis-Leplée, who ran a nightclub on the Champs-Elysées, discovered her talent, Piaf started her music career in Paris circles. She then became the most loved and sought after singer in Paris, in Europe, in the U.S. and the entire world. She was famous for her husky, mournful voice and her songs of loneliness and despair. She breathed life to more than a hundred songs from 1933 until her death in 1963. Her song “La Vie en Rose” is one of her best known songs. 

The musical “Edith Piaf-Marcel” is based on Piaf’s great love for world boxing champion Marcel Cerdan and what she went through after Cerdan’s death. In the play, Piaf creates a spiritual and imaginary world in order to communicate with Cerdan after his death in a plane crash in 1949. She reaches him in this spiritual and imaginary world through her songs, each of which turns into a prayer. Ghazanchyan utters solely one word throughout the entire length of the play: M-A-R-C-E-L!

“Edith Piaf-Marcel” will celebrate both the 100th birthday of legendary singer and the first play originating from Armenia to be staged in Turkey. The solo musical performance of Mariam Ghazanchyan will tell the story of Piaf’s love and longing through songs in French.

Tickets for the event are available at Mybilet.