Natalie Feheregyhazi’s Apuka Theatre will debut at the inaugural Paris Fringe May 23-29. (Apuka Theatre)

The subject of love and the city of love are colliding under the careful hand of Saskatoon’s own Natalie Feheregyhazi. She and her company Apuka Theatre have been chosen to perform Encore by Marc Prescott as part of the inaugural Paris Fringe May 23-29, 2016.

Encore is the story of a couple reuniting every anniversary to re-enact, word for word, their very first meeting. Its a play that Feheregyhazi has worked on for a few years and during that time she’s bounced around from Winnipeg to Montreal and most recently during a year-long professional development residency in Paris. “In groups we would do readings where different actors would read each line,” she explains. “With every different accent, and background, the ways of relating the words would change.”

“With every different accent, and background, the ways of relating the words would change.”

That’s when inspiration struck. Feheregyhazi decided the best way to present this play was with a guerilla style theatre. This show will be performed at random sites during the festival and the different pairings of the cast will pop up in the crowd to perform. It’ll be a different performance every time. “I wanted to capture the difference in discovery across cultures, race, gender and even sexual orientation,” says Feheregyhazi. “To explore love in all it’s different incarnations.”

Feheregyhazi was in Paris during the Charlie Hebdo and Bataclan attacks and she says it pushed her even further to counter the violence with a play filled with love. She explains, “Love is universal. It surpases all cultural divides and difference.”

“Love is universal. It surpases all cultural divides and difference.”

Paris is just the beginning for this production. After the international cast is done in France, they hope to perform this Fall in London. Feheregyhazi then hopes to bring the show home. She’s already beginning to apply for the Canadian fringe circuit for 2017.

Check out Apuka Theatre.