Guest Blog: 'It Felt Not Just Relevant But Necessary To Return': Ben Pettitt Wade on Ten Years of MEET FRED: A Puppet, A Journey, and a Fight That Never Ends

Ten years ago, we introduced the world to a two-foot puppet made of cloth at the 2016 Edinburgh Fringe. Little did we know that Fred would take us to over 145 cities across 20 countries and three continents, seen by 25,000 people. Not bad for a scrap of fabric with something to say.

Fred began as a seed planted in a workshop led by Blind Summit back in 2014, where we first encountered their approach to Bunraku, a form of 17th century Japanese three-person puppetry. We ordered our own puppets so we could explore the form with our artists and from there Fred gradually took shape entirely through improvisation as we continued to explore the form with our neurodivergent artists in our Academy. There was no grand design.

We simply put Fred in situations and let his character emerge. Working on the premise that everything was new to him, he asked the questions that perhaps the rest of us don't feel entitled to which could come across as a little prickly. But audiences loved him for it. There's something about a puppet that unlocks a depth of empathy that a human character sometimes can't. People really invest in his struggles. And because he is a puppet, we could also satirise and apply a healthy dose of dark humour to some very heavy subject matter.

The show was co-created with learning disabled and/or autistic artists, and that has always been at its core. Now, ten years on, we have only one original cast member, but we still tour with three learning disabled and or/neurodivergent actors, who play the range of characters Fred encounters in his world. Inclusive performance is central to Hijinx’s work and what Meet Fred is. It isn’t a token gesture but the creative engine of the whole piece.

Touring with a neurodivergent cast has taught us an enormous amount. In the early days, we made assumptions we quickly learned not to make such as the time in Salisbury during our first UK tour when we arrived to discover one cast member hadn't packed any clothes, not fully understanding we wouldn't be home each night. A quick trip to Primark sorted that particular crisis, but the lesson was clear: be explicit, be thorough, never assume.

We also used to share the support responsibilities among the whole team, which placed an invisible but real burden on everyone. Touring is gruelling enough - different towns every day, late nights, early mornings, get-ins and get-outs - and without proper time for your own self-care, you can't genuinely support anyone else either. We now always tour with a dedicated support person, and it has made the whole experience better for everyone.

The show has seen us through some extraordinary situations over the decade. A blown tyre on a German autobahn. A cast member needing to be replaced in three days after disappearing one night and not returning. Our Production Manager was arrested by Swiss police on apparent drug charges (it was co-codamol). A mysterious allergic reaction that landed me on an antihistamine drip in a South Korean hospital. Our car broke down near Goole which meant we had five hours to reach the Lichfield Garrick and no vehicle. We have only once canceled a show, in over 350, due to a particularly strong bout of food poisoning, but other than that the show - like Fred - has always gone on.

We have been lucky enough to take Meet Fred to extraordinary places, and the show lands wherever it goes, partly I think because its themes are universal. At its heart it is a David vs Goliath story and that resonates everywhere. France, perhaps unsurprisingly given their rich tradition of puppetry, has been one of our warmest audiences though Japan was probably our most nerve-racking stop because it’s the home of Bunraku. It’s now a UNESCO-protected art form and we were doing something very far from its traditional roots. But the audience were with us by the end, and as far as we know, we haven't been reported to UNESCO. In China, we discovered that a man wearing a green hat carries an implication of adultery we had never anticipated, which added an entirely unintentional extra layer to our Director character.

But perhaps the most meaningful impact has come in places where disability representation remains rare. In South Korea in 2024, we worked with the Wooran Foundation to create an entirely Korean version of the show, casting three learning disabled and/or autistic Korean actors in professional roles for the very first time. It was the first time the Wooran Foundation had ever employed disabled performers. That kind of project leaves a legacy.

Which brings us to why we're bringing the show back now. The original concept at the heart of Fred’s story about his Puppetry Living Allowance being cut, leaving him without a puppeteer, was drawn directly from what our artists were living through in 2016. Ten years later, with cuts to disability benefits once again dominating the political conversation, it felt not just relevant but necessary to return. Little has truly changed. The fight goes on. And so does Fred.