Fixing – Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle
Stephen Stoke invited | 7th November 2024
You may think that I am happiest when I am in a theatre and it is very true. There are some places, though, I am always happy to return to time and time again and Alphabetti Theatre is one of them. Situated just over the Redheugh Bridge, the Alphabetti staff always have a smile on their faces and a warm welcome to embrace anyone who crosses their threshold. Tonight was no exception. The bar was alive with patrons eagerly awaiting the doors for their latest offering ‘Fixing’ which opened a couple of evenings ago.
On entering the intimate auditorium, the audience is quickly ushered to seats and the performance area is simply dressed with a single Chesterfield style chair and accoutrement reminiscent of a car garage. It is engaging straight from the start. Then we are introduced to Natalie Spanner who, we learn, is to spend 12 weeks with us offering a holistic approach to car maintenance and repair. The audience is the participants in said course. Matt Miller, as Natalie, is instantly likeable and reminded me at the start of a Victoria Wood character – eager to please and slightly over the top in her engagement. Natalie is quite lovely.
If the audience behaves and does as Natalie instructs (as I did this evening because I am a good boy) then Natalie transforms into eight-year-old Matty, in the car with his now divorced dad and his younger sister, Ruby. The timeline here, gets a little complicated as Matt and they younger self compete to tell the narrative of their somewhat interesting relationship with their father and the new situation of living part time between the parents.
This is where the beauty and the pathos of the piece lies. There is a huge amount of humour and laugh out loud moments in this play but at its very heart is a beautifully crafted and heartfelt reflection on a boy’s relationship with his emotionally distant, but obviously loving father which certainly resonated with me and a couple of the other audience members I spoke with after the show.
Matt’s writing of the piece could have become one sided but this is not the case as they draw parallels with their own short-comings and similarities with their father which is very moving and brought a tear to my eye more than one this evening.
I mentioned that the other character, Natalie, reminded me of a Victoria Wood character when she was first introduced. As the play progresses, and she works through the units of her training course, she becomes a lot more nuanced and we become aware that she, too, is repairing aspects of her own life and giving back following events that have befallen her. While there is a resolution in the narrative of the father/son relationship of sorts, it is left to the imagination of the observer what has happened to Natalie to put her where she is now and there is a great charm in that as well.
The lighting and sound is very good indeed with some subtle changes when the action demands it. They are both operated by Peader Kirk who is also credited as a creator of the piece.
Fixing is a beautifully crafted piece of work and there has clearly been a great deal of research and personal thought gone into its creation. There is a message for any boy grappling with their relationship with their fathers, one for fathers struggling to understand their, often, alien offspring but there is also a message of hope for everyone who needs a bit of a tune up to listen to their engines, remember to maintain their own internal machines, and a reminder to top up on their essential fluids to avoid a crash.
Fixing plays at Alphabetti until 23rd November with Saturday matinees at 3pm on 9th, and 1pm on 16th and 23rd – tickets as always range from £3 to £15. There is a captioned and audio described performance on 20th and a touch tour prior to the performance on the same day. All Saturday matinee performances are relaxed.
I wish Matt a great deal of success with ‘Fixing’ and thank them for their performance which moved me on a personal level. I must give my dear old dad a quick ring in the morning.