After setting up a profile on an online dating site, western suburbs puppeteer Lana Schwarcz hopes to have a full house at her Melbourne International Comedy Festival debut, Love Monster.
“It basically said ‘I am doing a show, here are the details, book tickets and I’ll see you there’,” she said.
“It has received many, many responses. I may need a group of bold and happy single women to come along to the show to help even out the playing field.
‘‘Who knows? They might even find someone there in the audience.”
A regular at Sunshine Art Spaces, where she made her puppets, Schwarcz’s show is all about love and the lack of it.
“The show is all about my relationship with love. Unfortunately, in exploring that area, some of my ex-boyfriends get an airing in the show. Sorry guys,” she laughs.
“The idea is that the one puppet, The Love Monster, is a physical representation of what I believe could be the destructive force behind most of my relationship breakdowns – once it is finally allowed to come out, it just loves too much and squeezes the life-force out of everything.
“But I find a lot of joy in my single life and have adventures that people in relationships don’t necessarily experience.”
The Yarraville resident will perform one show in Auslan – she regularly uses sign language to lead Victorian College of the Deaf students on tours around the State Library.
Schwarcz will perform 6pm shows at the Imperial Hotel from March 26 to April 6 and 4pm matinees on April 12 and 19.
