INTERVIEW: “Controlled Insanity” – Linus Karp and Joseph Martin bring The Fit Prince to London

“There’s a lot to play with in finding the unpredictable in a genre that is defined by its predictability.” It’s a typically sharp observation from Linus Karp, one half of the duo behind Awkward Productions, and it neatly summarizes their trajectory.

If you have spent any time in a darkened gym hall at the Edinburgh Fringe over the last three years, you have likely encountered Karp and his creative (and romantic) partner Joseph Martin. They are the minds that told a blonde-wigged Diana’s story from heaven and sent Gwyneth Paltrow to a ski court in a production this publication described back in August 2024 as “uniquely controlled insanity” and a “cracking show.”

Now, they are swapping the chaotic hills of Utah for the frosted fictional peaks of Swedonia. Their latest offering, The Fit Prince (Who Gets Switched On in the Square in the Frosty Castle the Night Before Insert Public Holiday Here), has transferred from a riotous run at the 2025 Edinburgh Fringe to the King’s Head Theatre for the festive season.

“There’s a lot to play with in finding the unpredictable in a genre that is defined by its predictability.”

From Utah to Swedonia: The Awkward Evolution

For the uninitiated, the plot is a fever dream of every Netflix Christmas romcom you have ever hate-watched (I love ’em). A Prince in Swedonia (Karp) needs a spouse to keep the crown; a baker in New York (Martin) needs a career fix. There is a switch, a puppet, and presumably, snow. But unlike the heterosexual rails of the Hallma

rk Channel, this frosty castle is unapologetically queer.

“Our love for them is not so secret!” Linus admits when asked why they chose to tackle the festive genre. “They are so much fun, but the vast majority of them are VERY heterosexual, so we wanted to make one very queer instead. It also felt like a fun opportunity to incorporate my Swedish heritage into a show.”

It is a logical progression for the company. Having tackled the tragic (Diana) and the litigious (Gwyneth), a romance feels like a shift in gear. “After Gwyneth Goes Skiing and Diana: The Untold and Untrue Story where our characters are enemies, it felt right to be love interests,” Karp notes.

Life Imitating Art: The Fringe Wedding

However, the “love interest” dynamic is hardly acting. In a twist that arguably upstaged their own script, Karp and Martin legally married on stage during their Edinburgh Fringe run this past August. In front of a ticketed audience of 750 at the Pleasance Grand, they became, it is believed, the first couple to hold a legal wedding in the festival’s official programme.

One might wonder if signing the legal papers kills the tension required to play a “will-they-won’t-they” couple every night. Karp argues the opposite.

“I think knowing and trusting your co-actor is key, obviously in romantic scenes, but even more so in scenes where you fight,” he explains. “So if anything, our marital status just makes us fight with more passion.”

Pop Icons and Digital Cameos

That passion is bolstered by a production value that defies the “scrappy Fringe” label. The show features a dizzying array of digital cameos, a signature move for Awkward Productions. This time, they have pulled off a genuine coup: Grammy-nominated pop icon Tove Lo appears via video as the Prime Minister of Swedonia.

“We love Tove Lo and have been fans of her for ages,” says Karp. The casting process was surprisingly straightforward—a testament to the cultural cachet the duo has built. “When writing the script, we knew we wanted an iconic woman to rule Swedonia, so Tove was our first choice. We wrote it with her in mind, making self-referential jokes, and then we reached out to her people.”

The response was immediate. “When we got the email back saying Tove thought it sounded really fun and wanted to do it, we couldn’t stop screaming!”

Puppets, Politics, and Panto-Alternatives

She joins a cast that includes Heartstopper’s Sebastian Croft and Young Royals’ Malte Gårdinger, creating a pan-global queer ensemble that exists entirely on projection screens, while Karp and Martin hold down the fort on stage. Well, Karp, Martin, and Jenny Puppetson.

The puppet, a veteran of the Gwyneth ski trial, has been recast here as a baker. It begs the question: in a human romance, why the felt?

“Why NOT bring a puppet into the mix?!” Karp counters, confused by my suggestion that puppetry requires justification. “Every show is made better by puppets! And she’s not the only puppet in this show! Jenny played a lawyer in Gwyneth Goes Skiing, in this one she’s a baker and in many ways the true hero of the show.”

He adds a dark warning for those expecting pure whimsy: “When it comes to biggest diva, however… just wait until you meet Gerta McMurder.”

“Every show is made better by puppets! And she’s not the only puppet in this show!”

The show’s transfer to London places it in a crowded market. The capital at Christmas is a conveyor belt of pantomimes and endless regurgitations of Dickens. You cannot walk ten yards in Islington without tripping over a Tiny Tim. Yet, Awkward Productions are banking on an audience that is tired of the Victorian morality plays and ready for something that reflects the chaos of modern queer life.

Karp suggests that the audience interaction—another staple of their work, which we praised for its “prodigious amount of consenting involvement” in 2024—proves the appetite for this chaos. “Personally, I loved the one show where the two horses, played by audience members, kissed,” he recalls of the recent Fringe run.

The Verdict

As Londoners weigh up their festive options, the choice is between the traditional ghosts of Christmas Past or a trip to a fictional Swedish autocracy run by Tove Lo. For the Awkward Productions boys, the decision is a matter of moral imperative.

“A Christmas Carol is great, but we’ve all seen it. And how many gay characters are in it? Possibly Marley, but that’s it. The Fit Prince has so many queer characters, it’d be a hate crime not to go see it tbh.”

Featured Image: Linus Karp and Joseph Martin bring The Fit Prince to London