I have now met Fred. Fred is normally a lifeless, colourless little cloth puppet without a face that resides in the safety of a cardboard box. But with the help of the Hijinx theatre company he comes alive.
Fred is intrepid. He wants to be like everyone else, just a regular sort of guy. In this he is exhorted by the show’s director, Ben Pettitt-Wade, to “be his own puppet”. But being made of fabric and stuffing, and well, just being a puppet, makes attempting a ‘normal’ life pretty tricky. The parallel between Fred and his puppeteers and people living with dependence and interdependence provides an effective vehicle for storytelling.
Hijinx are a professional theatre company based at the Wales Millennium Centre in Cardiff. What makes them different is that their casts always include actors who have learning difficulties. Hyjinx Academies help build on the skills and talents of those who might otherwise get overlooked and offers them professional performance training and a chance to perform both locally and nationally. Following a successful run at Summerhall as part of the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2016, their latest production Meet Fred is now on a 48-venue tour of the UK.
Part of Hijinx’s vision statement reads: ‘A nation which acknowledges that Learning Disabled people have the right to equality of opportunity and a rich cultural life.’ The story of Fred is a bold eyes-wide-open attempt to explore that nation as it currently stands.
A series of black boards stand at the back of the stage. On them is painted, in a David Shriggly-like way, an interconnected life chart, with key elements highlighted in ballooned speech bubbles. A children’s party, a bar scene, a dating scene and a job centre scene are all listed as is an ominous bubble entitled ‘rock bottom’. Our hero Fred sets off down this complex roadmap with the best of intentions, but at every stage is either misunderstood, offered impossible choices or simply threatened by a system that is set up to fail him. In this, Fred acts as emissary to all those struggling in austerity-driven Britain.
Meet Fred is designed on two levels. Foremost it is the story of Fred attempting to live beyond his restrictions – to find love and a job, whilst living under the threat of losing his PLA (Puppetry Living Allowance). But the play widens to include those actually producing the performance around him: Gareth John plays a bullied stage manager; Director Ben Pettitt-Wade appears as himself; Lindsay Foster steps in as Fred’s potential date and later as his ‘Maker’, hilariously stuck, for a short while, inside the case from which she finally emerges, and Richard Newnham plays an uncompromising Job Centre official. Fred himself is animated, Bunraku-style, by three operators. Dan McGowan is the voice of Fred – he also moves his head and left arm. Aled Herbert manipulates Fred’s back and right arm while Sam Harding moves his legs. The three move seamlessly and with enormous empathy while McGowan’s voicing amply conveys Fred’s anguish, shock and surprise along the way.
When Fred stood alone in the spotlight, rendering his helpers invisible, the effect was magical. His sorrowful walk under rainclouds, in particular, was a highly effective piece of theatre in which we were all left in no doubt about his state of mind. Later, in a moment of release, when drifting weightless in a blackened room, the moment wouldn’t have looked out of place in a Jan Švankmajer animated movie. Earlier, when the Job Centre decided to remove some of his benefits, Fred literally lost his legs. This was powerful metaphor. ★★★★☆ Simon Bishop 24th January 2017
