Review: Fixing, Alphabetti Theatre Newcastle
Life and car maintenance are explored in Matt Miller and Peader Kirk's latest play. Susan Wear reports back.
Fixing is a moving, authentic, funny – and educational - portrayal of a young boy trying to fix family trauma, cleverly reflected in the parallel story of a young woman dealing with her own torment by giving lessons in car maintenance.
Co-created by Matt Miller, who also performs the parts of Matt and Natalie, and director Peader Kirk, the play has evolved via Edinburgh Festival, into a thoughtful and intriguing show exploring the impact of a marriage breakup.
Miller is sharing his own story, based on their Dad’s pride and joy, a classic Sunbeam Talbot Mark II, that he’d promised they would do up together one day.
The story weaves through the best-remembered times when around the age of eight, just after their parents split up, there was the excitement of staying in a house with missing floorboards, glorious trips out to nowhere in the old car, also with holes in the floor, and the joyful freedom of doing what they liked.
There were terrifying times too – heart stopping moments when a child disappears until they’re found, or starts choking. But it’s when Matt is in their thirties that they want to understand where the relationship with their Dad has gone and how they might rebuild it.
This is where Natalie, who is Matt’s drag alter-ego, steps in to give the audience a 12-week course in motor care and repair.
The set evokes the murky and mysterious (to me) world of the oil-smothered car repair workshop with its ubiquitous worn-out leather chair. The plethora of props – car parts - lend themselves easily to Natalie’s stream of innuendo and jokes that accentuate, rather than hide, her deep internal sadness.
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Miller, artfully managing several quick costume switches including ludicrously high platform shoes, is truly convincing playing the two very different characters, both struggling to make sense of their life experiences and trying to fix something they believe is broken.
Perhaps it’s the recognisable childhood memories, or the nonsense of the suggestive jokes juxtaposed against the heart wrenching moments when each character realises that some things can’t be fixed, or the excruciating (but fun) audience participation, but for an hour you’re transported and can almost smell the brake fluid, feel the oily rags and learn where to put that dipstick….
Fixing is playing Alphabetti Theatre in Newcastle until November 23. Visit the website for more details and bookings.