Key themes: Trust, openness, human relationships, prejudice, and love

Designers: Jamie MacDonald and Aarni Korpela (FI)

Presented by: Jamie MacDonald (FI)

Number of participants: any even number up to 40

Duration: 3 hours

Genre/style: Nordic-influenced, performance art, alternate reality

Run before at: First run in Helsinki 2011. Further runs in Helsinki, Copenhagen, Oslo, Tromsø, and featured in the 2014 documentary Match Me!

Content warning: none

About the larp

The Lovers’ Matchmaking Agency is a fake, pop-up “dating” agency that is about love and forming human connections, but not focusing on the search for romance and sex that we usually associate with dating. Usually run over multiple days, this version will give you a brief window into a state of mind where everyone is connected, and openness brings creativity. It’s a larp in the sense of being played in a magic circle of reality, but not in the sense that you play a role.

Jamie is a Helsinki-based performing artist (stand-up comedy, performance art, theatre) whose introduction to Nordic Larp started about a decade ago as an interest in the crossover potentials of larp and theatre. He has created pieces like Walkabout and The Lovers’ Matchmaking Agency together with Aarni Korpela, written chamber larps, and contributed written analysis of the larp scene and play and performance. He is a co-organiser of Just a Little Lovin’ in Finland in 2018, and an all-around good-time queer transgender guy.