Romantic comedy sketch Meet Cute, created by two LAMDA students who graduated into a shuttered theatre industry during lockdown, gets its world premiere at Camden Fringe this month, running at London’s Etcetera Theatre for four performances only on 14, 15, 20 and 22 August 2021.
The national lockdown was not all bad news… Quackpot Productions successfully managed to get all their ducks in a row, writing and producing Meet Cute.
Not all love stories have a happy ending or, frankly, even a happy beginning. According to research, the recent lockdowns have left many of us feeling socially anxious and isolated. Meet Cute represents the reality of dating as a twenty-something in the twenty-first century where love rarely runs smoothly. Utterly relatable comedy.
A ‘Meet Cute’ is when two people who may (or may not) form a future romantic relationship, meet for the first time. Classic love story, boy meets girl, their worlds collide, literally, and then quite casually, he completely accidentally, stalks her… you know?
Bumblingly, brilliantly British, immersive comedy theatre.
You know when you bump into a stranger at a coffee shop and knock coffee all over them? Your eyes meet, your heart rate increases, your palms get sweaty and you turn into a babbling baboon. So you go about your day, forgetting about the encounter right up until you bump into them for a second time. Now, it’s in that very moment that you realise your destinies are interlinked, a spark ignites between the two of you and it isn’t long before you’re sitting across from them… being interviewed.
Meet Cute is created and performed by Alice Fforde and Charlie Dryden, recent LAMDA graduates and founders of Quackpot Productions.
The 15th is SOLD OUT!!! Book now! Tickets selling fast!!!https://t.co/xdfg9APYTN pic.twitter.com/UiIASvab43
— quackpotproductions (@quackpotuk) August 3, 2021
About Quackpot Productions (puns follow!)
The founders of Quackpot Productions, Alice Fforde and Charlie Dryden were students at LAMDA when the pandemic hit.
With the acting world in complete disarray and no chance of gainful employment, the only way forward was to carve their own route into the industry.
Aside from writing and acting, the pair find various ways to keep afloat: Alice Fforde can often be found in stitches. As a business owner and co-founder of an online store specialising in high-quality yarns and knitwear, she is never at a loose end. Although Alice knows more about casting, than casting on, she is involved in designing, photography, styling as well as all creative input at The Knitter’s Yarn and you certainly cannot pull the wool over her eyes!
Charlie Dryden is a man of many talents: from cutting lines in the lawns of the wealthy to monitoring no lines in the pub toilet! From pulling weeds to pulling pints, he has done it all. Whilst gardening, he sees nature at its best which is, sadly, not always the case when observing the regulars down the pub.
Together, Alice and Charlie hope to get you drunk on comedy and wake up smelling of roses.
In addition to Meet Cute, another Quackpot lockdown achievement was the conception, writing, filming, editing, production and marketing of a six-part mini-series Lockdown Love Story – a comedy highlighting the ‘ups and downs’ of online dating during a pandemic. The show received recognition from Ricky Gervais, The Wombles and Yorkshire Tea! The series is also featuring this summer in digital lineups at the Edinburgh, Melbourne, Rochester and Hollywood Fringes.
Show photos
Photography by Zoe Birkbeck.
