Opera fans may recoil in horror at the idea and pop fans might be left bemused, but both are sure to get something from Max Sharam's 'p'opera', Butterfly Suicide. 'I don't like mindless pop music, per se, and love opera, but don't like operas,' says Sharam. 'So, if I take the best of the two and add some comedy, you've got something of a pop opera.' Butterfly Suicide, which fuses music, comedy and stagecraft, will be performed over four nights next week as part of the City Fringe festival. 'I invented it, to suit my needs,' says Sharam. 'It's still an undeveloped medium - and may not be one to take all that seriously, but who knows? 'Essentially it's about morphing different arts together and utilising all of my talents to provide me with an opportunity to do all the things I love in one forum. One of those things is to entertain and make people feel. 'I think anyone who loves a good aria will jump at the opportunity to see and hear it in a completely unconventional manner. It also makes a new world available to people who are otherwise unfamiliar with or unexposed to it.' Sharam, who was born in Australia but is now a naturalised American based in New York, has always tried to transcend traditional genre divisions. A brief list of her credits includes her award-winning, platinum-selling debut album, A Million-Year Girl, a stint studying taiko drumming in Japan, fronting a band in Hiroshima, and travelling through Switzerland, France and Italy with a group of madonnaro artists singing and painting on the streets. While in Italy, Sharam landed lead stage roles, alongside some of the country's finest talents. She had toured Europe twice with different theatre companies by the time she was 19. Her theatre credits include Forza Venite Gente, Jesus Christ Superstar and Mademoiselle Max, which she wrote, directed and performed at international comedy festivals. 'Overall, I could be considered an 'artist',' says Sharam. 'I'm at my best when I'm conceptualising and creating. My whole essence is about challenge and change. 'I'm driven by justice and love to provide a voice for the underdog or minority. I love to throw those questions out there that people are too afraid to ask. It gets me into a lot of trouble - which I also like to write about.' Sharam's first self-published book, Snakes Live Under My Bed, Allegory for Immature Adults - a collection of illustrated prose - was released last year. Now an independent producer for the Manhattan Neighbourhood Network television channel, Sharam is working with other emerging artists while developing her own television show. In Butterfly Suicide, she presents the nocturnal misadventures of 'ill Soprano', a highly strung opera diva who develops a mania for butterflies. 'I'm still formatting it,' she says. 'I'll be using projections - of videos I've shot and edited, and little animations from my drawings - combined with poems and songs that I've written. A harp player will join me. There'll also be some narrative. 'Metaphorically it's a kind of female skeleton with chunks of raw meat laced onto random sections of it,' says Sharam. 'I don't know if I can call it a play yet, though it does involve a lot of 'play'. I'm like a kid in a sandpit when I'm doing this kind of thing.' Sharam says Butterfly Suicide isn't a reference to Madam Butterfly. 'That's purely incidental. Accidental. A coincidence,' she says. 'I really didn't realise until I'd written the first piece - which stemmed from one of my drawings of a neurotic soprano choking on butterflies. I realised her death reflected a kind of romantic tragedy and later realised in some way it resembled Madam Butterfly. 'They're just symbols. Timeless universal symbols. Who knows, maybe [Madame Butterfly character] Cho-Cho San will make a guest appearance - after all, we'll be in Asia. Sharam's appearance at the City Fringe festival won't be the first time she's performed in Hong Kong. 'I was there before to show-case my album many years ago, although I don't know what to expect. People don't have to laugh, but I want them to feel a rush of blood.' Sharam says the show is 'just a toddler at the moment. But I hope to raise it to Dame Edna Everage status before I'm 60 and run it on Broadway.' Butterfly Suicide, Tues, Wed, 8pm, Thu, Fri, 9.30pm, Fringe Club, $99 (members), $130. Inquiries: 2521 7251
