Queering Puppets Festival Amsterdam 2025: CREATING BODIES

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"Bodies take shape as they move through the world, directing themselves towards or away from objects and others," - Sara Ahmed, queer feminist thinker and writer.

From March 25 to 30, the Plein Theater and Cat Smits Company present the fourth edition of the international Queering Puppets Festival Amsterdam!

Since 2022, Queering Puppets Festival Amsterdam has offered a stage to queer perspectives through groundbreaking forms of visual theater, object theater and puppetry. This quirky festival defies the norm with a motley and bold program full of exuberant, visual outburst from the Netherlands and abroad.

The theme of QPFA 2025, CREATING BODIES, challenges us to see bodies not as just given, but as something that is constantly being created, shaped and defined — by ourselves, by others, by systems and structures, both political and cultural. How do we experience our body? How does it move between boundaries of gender, identity and perception? When does a body become an object, and when does it acquire agency? And to what extent do we shape our bodies according to our own choice?

In the program of CREATING BODIES the body is played with, manipulated, dismantled and reconstructed. The body moves objects, becomes an object and escapes objectification. Be welcome!

PROGRAMMA DAY 2 DAY

TUESDAY MARCH 25

17:30 - 19:00 | DINNER
Buffet by Peggy's Kitchen (vega or vegan)

20:00 – 21:00 | THEATER
Vis a Vis(a)  Try Out
Cat Smits Company & Centre National d’Art de la Marionnette (TN)

21:00 – 01:00 | DJ & DRINKS

WEDNESDAY MARCH 26 OPENING DAY

17:30 - 19:00 | DINNER
Buffet by Peggy's Kitchen (vega or vegan)

19:00 - 19:30
Festive Opening

19:30 – 20:00 | TALK
Creating bodies resisting paper
Yentl de Lange

20:00 – 21:00 | THEATER
Vis a Vis(a)  Première
Cat Smits Company & Centre National d’Art de la Marionnette (TN)

22:00 – 22:30 | PERFORMANCE
Zielswenteling
Josje Eijkenboom

21:00 – 01:00 | DJ & DRINKS

THURDAY MARCH 27

17:30 - 19:00 | DINNER
Buffet by Peggy's Kitchen (vega or vegan)

19:00 – 19:30 | TALK
Puppets and the queer art of failure
Dr. Maja Hertoghs

20:00 – 21:00 | THEATER
One Man Show  - Première
Vox Muziektheater

23:00 – 23:30 | PERFORMANCE
Plastic Life
Claire Hermans & Tijmen Teunissen

21:00 – 01:00 | DJ & DRINKS

FRIDAY MARCH 28 QUEERING NIGHT

17:30 - 19:00 | DINNER
Buffet by Peggy's Kitchen (vega or vegan)

19:00 – 19:30 | TALK
Creating spaces voor other(ed) bodies
Carly Everaert

19:30 – 20:25 | | PERFORMANCE
You Can Take Me Home Toni
Lorraine Smith Arts (UK)

20:45 – 21:10 | TALK
Q&A: Wearable Sculptures
Daphne Karstens, Lorraine Smith, Soley Sigurjónsdóttir, host Fransien van der Putt

22:00 – 22:40 | PERFORMANCE
Re:shape or headless into the sea
Laura Boser & Ghenwa (noiré) Abou Fayad

22:45 – 01:00 | DJ, DRINKS & BALLROOM

SATURDAY MARCH 29 QUEERING NIGHT

17:30 - 19:00 | DINNER
Buffet by Peggy's Kitchen (vega or vegan)

20:00 – 21:30 | PERFORMANCE + Q&A
GPO Box No.211
Chun Shing Au

22:00 – 22:30 | PERFORMANCE
becomingSLUG
Thommy Kraft icw Christina Reinhardt

21:00 – 01:00 | DJ & DRINKS

SUNDAY MARCH 30 QUEERING PUPPETS X NIEUWE NOTEN

16:00 – 17:00 | SOUND PERFORMANCE
Materize
Sól Ey (IS)

17:30 - 19:00 | DINNER
Buffet by Peggy's Kitchen (vega or vegan)

TICKETS & INFO

• Check our agenda for more information per program component.

• Check the ticketshop for available tickets per day/evening.

• A Combi Ticket is available per day, which gives you access to all performances on that evening

• There is also a daily special available from the Peggy's Kitchen buffet. Buy a ticket in advance for this (€14.50)

• Some programs are free. You can register for these in the ticket shop.

• Tickets include a token, which has the value of a soft drink, coffee, tea, beer, wine or a Pringles mini at the bar.

• We offer discounts for (art) students and city pass holders with a green dot! Bring your pass or proof to the cash register, it will be scanned and/or checked. One discount card is required for each discount card.

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Queering Puppets Festival is a co-production of Plein Theater and Cat Smits Company. The initiators and artistic leaders are Cat Smits (theater maker, puppeteer) and Berith Danse (director Plein Theater, theater maker). Queering Puppets Festival is made possible by the Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsdeel Oost, Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst, Fonds Podiumkunsten and Het Cultuurfonds.