17 – 21 March

The Fred in question is a small puppet, for all the world undifferentiated from a child’s rag doll. Fred is articulated, but without any distinguishing features. Indeed it is the clear intention that Fred is one of many identical puppets, faceless and helpless without his puppeteers. It doesn’t take us long as an audience to work out that Fred is a metaphor or placeholder for a legion of real life persons caught up in a cold and heartless system. But that is getting ahead of ourselves.

We meet Fred, seemingly being unboxed for the first time, at the beginning of a journey of discovery: the realisation that he is a puppet without fingers, toes or (ahem) other bits and – what is more important for his story – entirely dependent on his three manipulators; one for his head (and voice) one for his legs and a third for his arms. Hijinx theatre is notable for its inclusive casting and in Meet Fred seamlessly blends into the cast of ’humans’ an actor with learning difficulties who, indeed, manages some of the best moments of the play.

Fred’s adventures in the dating game swiping on Tinder, and his hope against hope episode in the Jobcenter are witty, touching and acerbic in turn, with slap-in-your-face relevance to what actually goes on in real life. Thus does the cartoon-like storytelling, unafraid of time and space, leap about where conventional theatre would be hard put to follow. It is its great and enduring strength.

Despite the fact that there often seems to be something of a scrum of hands and faces around Fred, who performs for the most part atop a couple of large travelling trunks, our attention rarely shifts from the small canvas doll. And that of course is the point; we use our imaginations to project onto the blank canvas and fill in details where necessary using our own experience. Nevertheless like Aardman’s Morph, Fred has his own distinct personality, full of humour and pathos. The mind numbing absurdity of his interactions with the benefits assessor slowly grinds him down. The universality of his situation is not lost on us as, forced to consider the loss of his puppeteers owing to the removal of his special allowance, he sinks into despair.

With simple materials and clever storytelling, witty, touching and disturbing it is a show which is much more than a sum of its parts.

★★★★☆.  Graham Wyles, 19 March 2026

Photography credit: Kirsten McaTernan