Puppets with Guts Ltd
Puppets with Guts creates living stories for big spaces. We design large-scale puppetry, participatory performance and story worlds where audiences don’t just watch — they take part. Rooted in outdoor arts, our work grew from building giant puppets and performances for festivals and cities into creating experiences shaped by agency, embodiment and shared participation. We design worlds rather than fixed narratives, allowing stories to unfold through movement, choice and connection. Our practice combines craft, design and world-building to create work that is physical, social and transformative, operating at scale without losing intimacy. We believe stories belong in the body, in shared space, and in the relationships between people. Our ambition is to help shape the future of storytelling — creating generous, rigorous work for big spaces that brings people together and invites them inside the story.
Posted: 05 November 2026
Explore a directory of work by Puppets With Guts, including living storytelling experiences, large-scale puppetry, site-responsive performance and participatory projects. Current Touring Shows: Zee and the City: a vibrant street adventure where music, storytelling, and giant puppetry follow Zee’s quest to find a place for nature in the heart of the city. See what happened here.
The Lips: Dive into a world of energetic singalongs with The Lips. This show-stopping creation delivers a powerful punch of glam and glitz, perfect for festivals and standout events. Explore The Lips.
Gnomus: Meet Gnomus, our gentle giant, caretaker of the earth, and whisperer of ancient tales. Ideal for family-friendly gatherings and educational settings, Gnomus brings a touch of wonder and a call to raise environmental empathy and awareness. Discover more about Gnomus.
Beyond our touring projects, we collaborate on multilayered production projects, public art performances, corporate events, and film and advertising. We provide custom puppetry designs, construction, and professional puppetry services.
Ivan Thorley Creative Director & Founder
Ivan Thorley Creative Director & Founder — Puppets with Guts Ivan is a designer, maker and creative director focused on living storytelling at scale — crafting experiences that invite people inside stories, not just in front of them. He founded Puppets with Guts to explore what happens when giant puppets, bold visual worlds and participatory design meet big spaces.
Over more than a decade he has led the company’s evolution from outdoor arts and large-scale puppetry into story worlds that blend craft, agency, presence and shared attention. What Ivan does Concept and world development — shaping the imaginative ground from which stories grow
Collaborative design — partnering with artists, engineers, communities and commissioners to build frameworks that support participation and meaning
Project leadership — guiding ambitious public performance, procession and story world commissions from idea to delivery
Creative strategy — helping organisations think differently about how stories live in space and involve people His work is grounded in physical storytelling — where bodies, movement and environment shape experience — and driven by a belief that stories can expand how we see ourselves, each other and our shared spaces.
Background and practice Ivan’s creative practice emerged from dance, devised physical & visual performance, creative technology, outdoor theatre, and puppetry. Early in his career he worked with devised theatre companies and spectacle makers where he learned how scale, durability and design impact lived experience.
That early foundation in craft and outdoor performance proved a platform for thinking bigger about how do we design experiences that:
- invite choice and participation?
- encourage exploration and discovery?
- work fluidly across landscapes, streets and civic environments?
These questions now shape both his personal practice and the company’s direction.
Ivan believe’s
- Stories are best understood through action, not observation
- Design should enable, not direct — giving people room to shape what happens
- World-building is the groundwork for meaning and agency
- Big spaces demand systems and tools that are robust and generous
- He combines practical making skills with a curiosity about how we relate to environment, ritual, culture and movement.
Selected work Among Ivan’s creative leadership roles are:
- Zee and the City — a large-scale street adventure blending puppet, music and narrative
- The Lips — a big-puppet, collective singalong phenomenon
- Gnomus — a gentle giant figure connecting audiences with place, wonder and care
- Large-scale community participation programmes linked to touring performance work
- Puppetry and design contributions for major collaborative events and media projects
Speaking, mentoring and creative advocacy Ivan regularly contributes to discussions on:
- the future of storytelling in public and civic contexts - participatory design and audience agency
- large-scale performance systems
- creative leadership in hybrid performance forms
