Puppeteer Mark Down on saucy silly show ’The Sex Lives of Puppets’

Blind Summit Theatre’s Artistic Director Mark Down, wrote and directed The Sex Lives of Puppets as a way to share stories and experiences of real people (with help of the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes) in a playful yet scientifically observational that mixes explicit with sweet, and is always full of heart. He writes and directs alongside Ben Keaton, who you may know for his role as Austin Purcell in Father Ted.

We spoke to Mark to find out more about what to expect in this new Edinburgh Fringe show.

What is the motivation behind the show? Why sex, and why puppets?

Ticket sales. It's a blatant pitch for publicity. Sex! Puppets! Who can resist? 

Actually, it began from an idea I had nearly 12 years ago to make a show for puppets with moving mouths. That led to the realisation that they needed to talk. So then we had to decide what they should talk about. It was obvious almost immediately that they were hilarious when they talked about sex, but we didn't do that for a for a few years - duh! Then at some point I came up with the title, and we thought it was a good title, but still we ignored it. And then, after lockdown, I wanted to do something fun, exciting, and Charli (Assistant Director at Blind Summit) and I talked about this title and thought, I wonder what that show would be? That led to us approaching the National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (NATSAL) to collaborate with, and we started to put together a cast of puppets and puppeteers and found my brilliant co-writer and co-director Ben Keaton. Then slowly we began to work out what the show was. 

One of your previous reviews for Sex Lives of Puppets claims “[we] will all find something to relate to here.” – is that accurate?

I hope so! It's quite difficult for me to say exactly being on the inside, but the audiences have been very enthusiastic. They really took the show to their hearts. And we have had very wide range of audiences, all ages, all genders, all sexualities. We've had people holding hands, people with their parents, and even some grandparents. One night, at the end of the show, there was a couple snogging in the back row which I am very proud of. Are we the only puppet show that could get you laid? 

The puppets are able to say things that are outrageously rude and yet make you see how funny, how touching, how human they are. Of course when the puppets talk about sex they are really talking about relationships. I think the show is about love in all its difficult, wondrous and various forms, so I hope people can relate. 

How do you come up with the personalities, accents and looks of the puppets? 

Getting the puppet cast together was a long process of trying different things. As I said the first puppet was made in 2012! We cast them and recast them, even in different shows, changed their clothes, changed their names, even changed their genders at times! Russell Dean, our fantastic puppet maker on the show, did an amazing job of tracking our choices and making them better. It's quite a difficult process at times because the puppets keep changing our minds, but he has to actually make the clothes, paint the puppets, do their hair and make-up!

I have a method of rehearsing where we improvise in genre which generated voices and ideas. We'd say "do a sex monologue in the style of avant garde theatre" or "in the style of Harold Pinter" and see what happens. On the other hand, Ben (Keaton), my co-director, is a brilliant improviser and very funny, but he is also a writer, so he actually brought some scripts to rehearsals which we worked with. 

And then of course it's the amazing cast members - Dale, Izzy, Briony and lots of others who helped us rehearse - who just tried lots of things until they worked. In the end I think we choose the ones that make us laugh the most. 

How do you maintain being sweet, warm and full of heart whilst also looking at sex from every angle?

That is a good question and I am not sure. I think the puppets do that maybe. They are naturally very cute. Maybe because they are smaller than real life, but with larger than life personalities, or something, but I'm afraid I don't have any evidence to support that! The NATSAL survey was really helpful giving a picture of "ordinary sex lives" which are of course not at all ordinary but endlessly fascinating, as people are. Sex is both ordinary, and yet it is also central to our lives. It is at the core of all sorts of important life decisions. 

One thing I learned from making the show is that everyone loves talking about sex.  It's the best subject in the world. It isn't always happy, or easy, or even nice, but talking about it demystifies it and makes it accessible somehow. We tried to be as honest as possible in making the show. Talking about sex is just talking and there really isn't anything to be afraid of. 

To what extent is it the job of theatre to entertain and to educate?

Theatre is writing in the wind. It's here today and gone tomorrow. So, it really needs to be entertaining so that people will come and see it while it's on! Having said that, I think part of the entertainment is learning something. In fact I am less entertained when I learn nothing. It is somehow a waste only to be diverted by a show. The strength of theatre is that everyone learns together. It is not teaching. We are learning when we perform the show alongside the audience. 

This is even more extreme when working with puppets because they have their own meanings that really don't become clear until the audience sees them and reacts. So in fact we spend most of our time in rehearsal making sure that the puppets are as entertaining as possible, and we trust that in performance they will bring their own meaning. I always have hopes and ambitions for a show, but I really never know what it means until we perform it and then the audience tells us. 

The Sex Lives of Puppets will be performed at 21:30 at the Pleasance Courtyard (Beyond) from 31st July – 25th August (not 7th or 14th) 

Booking Link: https://www.pleasance.co.uk/event/sex-lives-puppets