The Sex Lives of Puppets

8th – 13th, and 15th – 25th August 2024

The Sex Lives of Puppets is Creature Comforts meets Channel 4’s Sex Box.

Drawing inspiration from real-life interviews the show is written in collaboration with The London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and The National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles. 

It is written and directed by, I must admit, someone who has made me laugh out and who I have badly imitated many times, Ben Keaton (who you may know as Austin Purcell – The Most Boring Priest in the World in Father Ted) and Mark Down (Artistic Director of Blind Summit whose work includes the 18ft Voldemort at Danny Boyle’s 2012 Olympic opening ceremony).

“The Sex Lives of Puppets is Creature Comforts meets Channel 4’s Sex Box”

The show comprises, you will not be surprised to hear, a collection of puppets discussing various subject matter relating to sex and relationships.

Four puppeteers enter, dressed in black, accompanied by thumping dance music. The first of eight sets of puppets is introduced, brought out from a box on the side of the stage. A heterosexual couple: the female puppet dressed in a red bikini and leopard print dressing gown, the male receding and bearded. They discuss their sex life, and conclude it is “such a wonderful act”, alongside revealing their pet name for the woman’s vagina, which I won’t spoil for you.

For the remainder of the show, we hear from Suki – an American actress that likes to play strong women, lesbian Londoners Katie and Helen, Daz who is into choking, Dimitri and Robin (one of whom tried being a coffee table during role play), Clive who is having an affair whilst his wife battles breast cancer, and Marcus and Preston, two randy men in a care home. Arguably the most successful pairing, however, were Harry and Frannie – Frannie who insists on correcting Harry’s grammar when he talks dirty to her.

I had high hopes for this, however, sadly it fell flat. The puppets were each a work of art, but they lacked personality visually, which for a performance such as this, is essential. The puppeteers did a great job with their movement and voices, but the script was full of awkward pauses, and lacked punch. The script needed many more witty and original moments, as this simply felt like a regurgitation of real-life interviews with no real interesting content.

I was also left feeling awkward at the physically sexual moments of puppetry – I’m no prude, but this was unnecessary and voyeuristic, and served no purpose. If this is to be developed, I would urge the script writers to focus on a faster delivery, and that the acts are broken up in some way, as it became repetitive. Certainly potential here with some work.

Rhea Shepherd