Long before the smutty frankness of Avenue Q, the tear-inducing majesty of War Horse or the spectacle of The Lion King, truths have been aired, histories kept alive and stories told through puppets.
No strangers to difficult subjects, for our present reality-obsessed era of entertainment, leading practitioner in the field Blind Summit has taken this noble tradition of puppets reflecting life back to humans and used it to present a comic and telling profile of contemporary approaches to sex.
Co-writers Ben Keaton and Mark Down took a bold look at their source material—The National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles—and from it crafted a collage of gently insightful documentary-type interviews based on real survey responses that reconfirm the old adage that “there’s nowt so weird as folk”.
From Dimitri, whose first idea for roleplay was to be a 1970s coffee table, to Roger, whose pet name for his partner’s vagina is King Edward VIII, the speakers talk openly about different aspects of sex with only the occasional hint of hesitation.
It would be easy to write them off merely as exhibitionists, the sort of people that go dogging, mock them even, but the characterisations have such humanity and the anecdotes and reflections are modulated by touches of sadness that this becomes an often touching watch.
The writing succeeds best when it feels least improvised, but it is the puppets’ delivery that steals the show. Mainly rod puppets with a mechanism to operate the mouth, designers Russell Dean and Blind Summit’s puppets mutely project personality through their shape and look. Their oversized heads focus the audience’s gaze, but the carefully observed detail of a shirt gaping over a middle-aged tummy or a leopard print onesie accessorised with diamanté-embellished sunglasses speaks volumes.
Young and old come alive in the hands of the four actors—Mark Down, Isobel Griffiths, Simon Scardifeld and Dale Wylde—who work together as one in neat and economic coordination. They display a sensibility for each character, giving it depth with small mannerisms and gestures and glances between the couples that make real their relationship and take anthropomorphism to another level.
The four make a supremely skilled team, though the shadow puppet first act closing, "Gratuitous Shadow Puppet Sex", is a medley of acts and bodily parts in silhouette that needs some finessing to earn its place in such well-constructed and thoughtful company.
All is redeemed in the second act, which returns to the interview format with the same non-judgmental viewpoint and new themes examined with an equal uncensored candour.
The finale, which is executed in almost Bunraku-style with the four performers near vanishing into the background once masked in black, has a gradual build-up to a frantic and joyful celebration of sexual imagination and physical flexibility that leaves you smiling and being thankful it’s ‘only’ puppets and nothing to do with real people!
The Sex Lives Of Puppets at Southwark Playhouse Borough has an age recommendation of 16+ due to strong language and puppet scenes of a sexual nature.