It’s the start of summer and you know what that means: Fringe! We know it’s impossible to see every single amazing TO show during the two week(ish) fest, so Purple Glow Mag is here to help. We had the opportunity of interviewing the talented A’mar Wharton-Matthew and Fringe veteran director Sasha Lukač about their Fringe show, A Flea In Her Ear.

If you haven’t heard of this play, it was created over a century ago by Georges Feydeau, and is still going strong. A’mar and Sasha would like to emphasize that it is also very SEXY, light and hilarious! A Flea in Her Ear is suited for viewers of all kinds (keep in mind Fringe has it PG-rated) who have experienced love or confusion, or are simply looking to laugh!

1. Hi A'mar and Sasha! Can you give a quick summary of what Fringe is all about?

S: Well Fringe is a great thing; I've been part of Fringe several times before. I think it's an amazing opportunity for Toronto actors to sort of present their work. They get an opportunity to perform, or to direct or choreograph and so on. I think it's a great place to be. There is a lot of interaction, a lot of opportunity to see other shows. There's this great enthusiasm which keeps the city alive for ten days, so I have nothing but good things to say about Fringe.

A: This is my first Fringe. Fringe for me has been a great experience. I'm doing a lot during this Fringe. I jumped on as a choreographer for this show, but I'm also playing a character which is great. It's definitely an experience to step into the Toronto scene. I've done shows in Richmond Hill and New Market, which are not that mainstream, but I feel like this show will really start paving paths for me in the Toronto industry. So I'm really excited to do that at this Fringe show.

2. Give us some background on A Flea in Her Ear!

S: What's interesting about this is that this play is over 100 years old, but it keeps being revived across the world. It's an extremely popular play where I come from, which is Serbia. The play ran for almost 45 years, and for me it was almost my introduction into theatre. I think I learned how to love theatre through this play. So I have a very emotional, sentimental attachment to the play. It's a French farse, so there's a lot of love couples who are mistaking identities, people chasing each other, falling in love, falling out of love. And the big crescendo of all these wants and loves happens in this very special hotel that we renamed 'Hotel Inuendo'. I mean I'm obviously not going to tell you the plot, but I think it's an exceptionally funny play that still works. We did some updates on it; A’mar is certainly a great part of that. What I'm particularly happy about is that our cast is absolutely fantastic. It's been a long while since I’ve worked with such a great bunch of young, and not-so-young actors, who are enthusiastic. So if you want to have a good time at Fringe and watch something really, really hilarious, come and see our show!

3. Who should come see this show? Who's going to absolutely love it?

A: I feel like people who are not afraid to push bounderies, who are open to new ideas, are going to definitely like this show. People who consider themselves as outcasts will enjoy the humour of the show. It's just a really fun show. It doesn't take itself too seriously and so it helps move things along.

4. How do you make sure people come to your show, and not all the others happening during Fringe?

S: If we knew that, it would be easy! We’re working different ways, including this interview, hopefully. We’re hitting the social media pretty hard, we have an amazingly well designed poster, and our flyers, and so on. And it's only the luck of the draw right? You go out there and hopefully the first couple of shows will give some great word of mouth. And I have absolutely no doubt that we’re going to be well received.

And to add on to what A’mar said about who’s going to be watching our show; I think that this show is very cross-generational, because there will be some people who know of the play, because it's a pretty classic play and it has left a lot of people laughing for years. The themes are really universal. It's about love and sex, expectations from all kinds of tricks and connections with other people. I think it's a theme that covers many ages, so our appeal is in that people can watch and not feel like they’re excluded because they don't accept something or because the topic is too bizzare or closed off. So I think that our greatest appeal is that it's a show that can work across all ages.

Maddie Rose as Antoinette (image source)

5. How is prep for a Fringe show different from prep for what I'm going to call a regular show?

S: I'm kind of a veteran; I've done over 100 professional productions. Different types of circumstances demand from you, as a director, to change your approach. In this case, we were rehearsing for a long time, l mean date-wise we started about 2 and ½ months ago, but we had very few rehearsals, only twice a week. You have to count on the availability of people and so on, so it’s a little bit of a different dynamic, than when you put a show together in 2-3 weeks, doing equity work, 8 hours a day, etc, etc. So it's a little bit of a different shift, and I think, for a director the biggest challenge is to keep people enthused over that long period, because everybody always just wants opening night. We’re now really hitting a great stride, people are coming together, our comedic styles are getting more uniform, even though some of these actors have never worked together before. I'm exceptionally excited about it, and I think that we’re just getting up that roller coaster, the biggest hill, and now we’re ready for the ride. I think we have some really cool stuff to show to the audience.

6. Any other Fringe shows you desperately need to see?

A: Well, quick plug to me. On top of this one, I'll be doing a Confidential Musical Theatre Project. This is where we grab our scripts, have our sheet music a month in advance, and on the day of the show we meet our cast and perform a full show on that night. So it's definitely a challenge for an actor, because we get thrown into a world that we have no rehearsal time for, we have no stage directions, we have no stage. So it's a very unique, very challenging thing. If you want to see actors take on a challenging role, I recommend coming to see some Confidential Musical Theatre Project.

S: I think we should plug our friends, who are also sharing the space with us, and who are sharing another actor. Xavier de Guzman is also in HANDS DOWN. These are the people who are connected with Trailer Park Boys and This Hour Has 22 Minutes - the writer and the director are. We're trying to share an audience and plug each other’s show. That would be one that I suggest to be seen, and for the others I’ll kind of play it by ear. I'll see what I can because I'm doing full-time teaching at York, and I might not be able to spend a full 2 weeks just watching Theatre.

7. Do you have anything else you'd like to add?

S: It’s really going to be fun. By the way, it's a very sexy show, that's what I wanted to say.

A: I play Camille, we’ve revised him and adapted him. He identifies as a furry; we thought it was appropriate for the play. He is a very unique character, you'll see that he is in this world being himself. That's very appropriate at the moment because we celebrated Pride month. Express yourself, be who you want to be, and as much as Pride is for the LGBTQ community, it is for everyone else. Accept who you are and be proud of who you are. I feel that's what Camille is. Camille is a very proud person and he's a character.

S: So hopefully that will intrigue you enough to come see the show!

Get your tickets at the link below:

https://fringetoronto.com/festivals/fringe/event/flea-her-ear

Follow the event on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/events/193015734547904??ti=ia

"A Flea in Her Ear" - A Toronto Fringe 2017 Must See