We chatted to co-writers/ directors about The Sex Lives of Puppets, opening at the Southwark Playhouse from the 4th to the 13th January.
Could you tell us more about what The Sex Lives of Puppets is about? It’s a bunch of puppets, and puppet couples, talking about their sex lives. Their collected stories are inspired by the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles. They are funny, serious, always rude and sometimes moving, and they aim to present a snapshot of puppet sex in contemporary Britain. There is also some shadow puppet sex and a puppet orgy.
How did the idea for the show come about? The truth is we were improvising with some puppets, making them chat to each other, and the conversation kept coming round to sex. Puppets are able to talk about anything and that intrigued us. My main concern is always finding new ways to make puppets work and new things for puppets to do so that became the show. I followed the puppets where they lead us, and let them say whatever they want to say. It sometimes gets us into trouble.
How have you found the experience of bringing the show to life? Well firstly I was nervous to start on a project where we were talking about sex every day with a group of people who, to begin with at least, didn’t know each other. But we dived in and pretty quickly we found that we all love talking about sex, and in fact never shut up about it. And it turned out puppets are the same. In fact maybe worse. The process has all the usual frustrations of trying to get puppets to work (they are inherently lazy), looking for a narrative throughlines etc etc, but the subject matter of sex is endlessly fascinating and it’s been really good fun.
What are you most looking forward to about audiences seeing the show? Puppets really don’t come to life until they have an audience, so in many ways the arrival of an audience completes the show. I try to work in such a way that the show is not finished but “ready to show to an audience”. Then with the audiences’ responses the show starts to really
come to life, to grow into a fully formed thing and we can start to think about finishing it! I hope we will wow them with the puppetry and get them all talking about sex in the bar
afterwards. That’s what rehearsals do for me!
How does it feel to be bringing the production to the Southwark Playhouse? I love Southwark Playhouse. It is my local theatre. I think of Southwark as a venue for new writing and quality plays so it is particularly thrilling to be bringing a puppetry show there. I think puppets can do contemporary theatre and Southwark backing us to try that is very exciting. I like the atmosphere of the building, and so do the puppets. It feels like the perfect venue.
What are your ambitions for the show for the future? I hope that people enjoy it enough in its first incarnation to have a chance to do it again and hopefully tour it. If that happens then I really hope that we can continue to develop the show to tell more stories and portray more people and lifestyles. The first step is to get it on and get the audience involved.
By Emma Clarendon
The Sex Lives of Puppets will run at Southwark Playhouse Borough from 4th January – 13th January 2024 – you can get tickets at:
https://southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/the-sex-lives-of-puppets