The Other Room at Porter’s, Cardiff
Thurs 23 June-Sat 2 July
Meet Fred is a charming, hilarious and touching production with puppetry skills that really are a wonder to watch. Drawing on the puppetry forms of bunraku (a three-man puppetry style that originates in Japan) which Hijinx developed with the puppet company Blind Summit, who coined the term ‘extreme puppetry’ for the extremes of emotion it creates. The skill of the puppeteers and the actors in responding to Fred are a credit to the joint work of Hijinx and Blind Summit, and the hard work in the workshops and in the rehearsal period in making Fred really come to life.
The puppetry team (Dan McGowan, Morgan Thomas, Craif Quat) work in harmony to control and give life to Fred. They simultaneously blend into the background so the audience cease to see ‘Fred the Puppet’ but see him as another actor, while the puppeteers also reflect and create Fred’s emotions through their own bodies. The way in which the three other actors (and one rogue director) work with Fred shows just how much of a ‘real person’ he has become by interacting with him seamlessly, and despite the constant reminders that he is ‘a puppet’, it’s really hard to see Fred as anything but a real person.
Fred has encounters with the job centre, a date, a disastrous job and an ill-advised evening in a bar. Parallels between everyone’s lives and Fred’s soon become apparent, in particular people with disabilities, echoing the work Hijinx does with actors who have learning disabilities.
A highly entertaining, moving and brilliantly produced piece of theatre Meet Fred asks some challenging questions about society and inclusion in keeping with Hijinx’s remit of providing inclusive and equal performance opportunities. They also show that inclusive theatre can be all of these things, and much more. Hijinx challenges their actors to produce high calibre work, and continues to break down barriers in doing so.
Tickets: £5-£12. Info: www.otherroomtheatre.com
words EMILY GARSIDE