As Hijinx marks the tenth anniversary UK tour of Meet Fred, Director Ben Pettitt-Wade reflects on access, authorship and why a small puppet’s battle with bureaucracy continues to resonate worldwide. Interview by Juliette Barber
Before we talk about Meet Fred, could you outline Hijinx’s ethos and your role within the company’s work with learning disabled and autistic artists?
Hijinx is an inclusive theatre company based in Cardiff, founded in 1984. All of our work is made with, or co-created alongside, learning disabled and autistic artists. Inclusion is not an add-on for us – it’s the foundation of everything we do.
My role sits across directing and developing work with our artists. Alongside producing shows, we’re also a training provider. We established our Hijinx Academies in 2012, which now operate across five hubs in Wales – two in Cardiff, and one each in West, North and Mid Wales. Around 64 learning disabled and autistic artists train with us every week, spending two days with the company.
Those academies feed directly into our productions, and Meet Fred was one of the first shows to fully demonstrate that model in action – developing work through training sessions, then moving into production with a smaller group of artists alongside freelance creatives.
Hijinx has a long history. How has its inclusive ethos developed over time?
The company was originally founded on the belief that everyone has a right to access live theatre. In its early days, Hijinx toured extensively to rural communities, performing in village halls and places where theatre was otherwise difficult to access.
A significant shift came in 1999 with the creation of a community group called Odyssey. The invitation was simple: if you have a passion for performance, this is the group for you – with a deliberate focus on integrating learning disabled adults. From there, the company began creating work with learning disabled artists, then work specifically for learning disabled audiences, often in community and day care settings.
The natural progression was to develop artists to a professional level, equipping them with the skills, confidence and resilience to work as performers. This ultimately led to the formal establishment of the academies, and these have been the backbone of Hijinx ever since.
Alongside this, we also host Unity Festival, a biennial international inclusive arts festival, which takes place in Cardiff with satellite events across Wales. It’s one of the largest inclusive arts festivals in Europe and has been vital in building international networks and relationships. This year’s festival is in partnership with the Cardiff Food and Drink Festival. It’s always a joyful, busy weekend with lots of performances, lots of people and lots of food.
Hijinx isn’t known primarily as a puppetry company. How did puppetry become central to Meet Fred?
Puppetry came into the picture through a workshop in 2014 led by Blind Summit, who are internationally recognised for their work. That workshop sparked a real interest in their Bunraku-inspired puppetry style, in which the puppet is visibly animated by its puppeteers.
We ordered a set of training puppets and spent six to nine months exploring puppetry as a form within our academy sessions. Often with Hijinx productions, we begin with form rather than a fixed idea; as we explore what a form can do, we see what themes emerge. In this case, it was puppetry that led us to the story.
So how did Meet Fred begin to take shape?
Very early on, we became interested in the relationship between the puppet and its puppeteers. A puppet is completely dependent on others to exist – without its puppeteers, it’s an inanimate object.
That idea resonated deeply with the lived experiences of many of the artists we were working with, particularly around the support systems they rely on to live independently, access work and participate fully in society. At the time we were making the show, austerity and benefit cuts were having a real impact on our artists’ lives. Some were losing vital support and facing increasing barriers to independence.
The key question became: what would happen to Fred if his puppeteers were taken away? That metaphor unlocked the show. From there, the artists began directly feeding their experiences into the work, including encounters with job centres, benefit assessments and bureaucratic systems.
Those experiences shaped the scenes and gave the show its political edge.
The result is a piece that is both playful and uncompromisingly political. Was that balance intentional?
Not initially. I think I assumed we were making something quite whimsical – a puppet show with humour at its heart. But as we began improvising and placing Fred into real-world situations, the frustration of the system became impossible to ignore.
Every time we asked, “What would it be like for a puppet to live in the real world?”, the world became more hostile, so the politics emerged organically from that process.
Ten years on, have you felt the need to update the show to reflect changes in policy or language?
Interestingly, not really. While terminology has changed, the reality hasn’t shifted as much as we might like. If you’re learning disabled or autistic and reliant on benefits, it’s still a fight to access support, employment and basic needs.
Fred isn’t on Universal Credit or PIP, he’s on a “Puppetry Living Allowance”, which gives us a degree of separation. But the parallels remain very clear. Because of that, the show still feels painfully current without needing major changes.
What has changed over time is the cast. We’ve recast the show several times, which naturally brings slightly different perspectives and emphases, though the core remains intact. Lindsay Spellman is the only original cast member still in
the production.
How have audiences responded internationally?
One of the most fascinating things about Meet Fred is how differently it’s read in different contexts. While the disability politics are central, at its heart is a universal story about a small character facing an overwhelming system.
In China, for example, audiences didn’t necessarily connect with the disability narrative in the same way. Instead, they related it to the experiences of people migrating from rural areas into cities and finding themselves marginalised and excluded. The story still resonated, just through a different lens.
In the US, some audiences found certain moments very challenging, particularly scenes where a character with Down syndrome is treated harshly on stage. For us, those moments are meant to be uncomfortable, but responses varied, and that cultural sensitivity was very apparent.
You’ve also created a fully translated version of the show in Korea.
Yes, in 2024 we worked with Korean partners to create a completely Korean-language version, with a Korean cast. We spent several weeks rehearsing and adapting the work culturally. That was a pretty extraordinary experience.
The show has been translated into around 12 or 13 languages overall, usually performed with surtitles. We’re currently in early conversations about a potential Japanese version, possibly for 2028, depending on how discussions develop.
With the show now ten years on and having travelled so widely, have you noticed shifts in the sector’s approach to inclusivity and access?
There is definitely more openness now from venues and funders to programming inclusive work, and that’s been helped by organisations such as Ramps on the Moon and broader policy shifts within arts councils.
That said, touring in the UK is extremely difficult at the moment. Venues are under huge financial pressure, and in some cases, we’re being offered lower fees now than we were in 2017.
That makes small-scale touring incredibly challenging and means productions like Meet Fred require significant subsidy to tour domestically. Ironically, touring internationally is often more financially viable for us than touring within the UK.
What’s next for Hijinx beyond Meet Fred?
There’s always a lot happening. Alongside Unity Festival, we’re working with Cultural Bridge on an artist exchange project between the UK and Germany.
We’re also planning to tour Housemates, a larger-scale production made in collaboration with the Sherman Theatre, which is aimed at main stages. That’s currently pencilled in for spring 2027.
After so many years touring internationally, there is something particularly meaningful about bringing Meet Fred back to UK audiences. Performing without surtitles allows the company to feel the room in real time – the laughter, the silences, the moments of discomfort – and to share the experience directly with audiences at every step.
Meet Fred will be touring throughout the UK until 5 June 2026. For more information on this and Unity Festival (1–5 July 2026), visit www.hijinx.org.uk/
