Lally finds luck and love thanks to a fortune teller called 'Cookie'

DRAMATIST Lally Katz's one-woman-show was inspired by a visit to a fortune teller.

Lally Katz

DRAMATIST Lally Katz was awarded a scholarship to visit New York to research her play, but ended up spending the money visiting a fortune teller.

That story is now the basis of her one-woman-show Stories I Want to Tell You In Person, opening at Belvoir St Theatre this week. She spoke to Zilka Grogan.

Are the stories in the play true?

Everything I'm going to talk about is true because I'm not a good enough actor to lie! I met this psychic called Cookie when I was in New York on a Churchill Fellowship. I was just obsessed with her as a character so I kept going back and giving her money. After a while, I just wanted to spend time with her.

What answers were you looking for?

I had been single for a long time because I was always following my work everywhere. I thought there was some curse where I couldn't be a writer and have love. When Cookie told me I could have everything success, love, three children I knew she just wanted my money, but I wanted to hear it. In the end she cured the curse. Now I do have a boyfriend.

Is this play more revealing than your previous work, like Neighbourhood Watch?

It's much more personal than I'd hoped it to be. I thought I could just tell some stories and talk to people, but the director Anne-Louise Sarks said I had to reveal myself more. In the end I found I had to treat myself as a character, which I often do in plays I'm writing, but I don't usually play that character. Besides, my only rule in writing really is to just tell the truth.

You were born in America but grew up here. Do Americans and Australians approach theatre differently?

American plays at the moment are often about an idea and each character is an argument of that idea. The scenes are often arguments between these different characters. Australian work doesn't like to make bold statements. It will go sideways into things, rather than front on, which I think can be very interesting in writing.

You're often described as an irrepressible character. Do you agree?

Probably at the moment with all this rehearsing because I'm just talking all day! I definitely get down. I'm always on the verge of apocalypse but then I'm always on the verge of euphoria as well. I guess there's not a lot of middle ground. But I always try to see hope in the situations that start off as apocalyptic.

• Stories I Want to Tell You in Person is on until April 21. Details: belvoir.com.au