‘Meet Fred’ – Performance by Hijinx Theatre; Presented by Puppet Showplace Theater at the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA), Plaza Theatre, 539 Tremont St., Boston.
It really makes no difference whether you’re a fan of puppetry or not. Hijinx Theatre’s wonderfully absurd Meet Fred is bound to be one of the funniest and most original productions you’ll see this year. Meet Fred tells the story of Fred, a puppet in search of his humanity. Operated by three puppeteers (one for the head and voice, one for legs, the other for arms) he embarks on a journey that takes him through life’s essentials – work, love, regrets and revelations – all in a tidy 80 minutes. Along the way we’re treated to laugh-out-loud comedy that is definitely not for the kiddies.
Set on a mostly bare stage with a huge blackboard with potential plotlines like ‘rock bottom’, ‘marriage’, and ‘prison’ scrawled across it, we first meet Fred as he arises like a man waking up from a drunken blackout, horrified to find out that he is a puppet. After the director (Ben Pettit-Wade, who also directed the show) eases his fears, he convinces him to try and live his life as he thinks a ‘normal’ man would do.
The humor is both sophisticated and relatable as we see in one of the first sequences of Fred’s pursuit of the so-called normal life. He reports to the Job Centre (a kind of Welsh unemployment office one presumes), and once there, he finds that he’s in danger of losing his PLA (Puppets’ Living Allowance) because he seems unable or unwilling to take a job. The scene brilliantly mocks government bureaucracy, as the job counselor tells Fred “excuses are the nails that are used to build the house of failure”, when he protests that he can’t take a job as a furniture mover because he’s, well, a cloth puppet.
Meet Fred was developed in 2016 in a workshop with Hijinx Cardiff Academy and their learning disabled actors, in conjunction with the Blind Summit Theatre puppetry company. The play is designed as a metaphor of sorts for the difficulties that folks with disabilities face, but it’s not always obvious and not even remotely preachy. The only perceptible nod to the theme may be the inclusion of Gareth John, an actor with Down Syndrome.
Unfortunately, Meet Fred is running this weekend only, with performances tomorrow night and Sunday afternoon. Parental advisory: some material in Meet Fred may be inappropriate for children under 13. Contains strong language.] For more information: www.puppetshowplace.org/meet-fred, (617) 731-6400.
Have seen the show twice. There is so much to take in. Great performances all around, being very funny and very moving all at the same time. Hurray for Fred!