About Fixer
Wednesday 6th July 2011
One of the interesting things about reviewing shows regularly is that you get to sense shifts in the ecology of London fringe theatre. Last night I went to the Oval House in south London and saw an excellent production of Lydia Adetunji’s Fixer, part of this venue’s London via Lagos festival of new work. Set in northern Nigeria, the well-written play explores what happens when rebels attack an oil pipeline, thus attracting journalists and company executives like flies to the area — but all these outsiders need a local Fixer to get in touch with the action. Neatly plotted, this piece exposes some of the human costs of our dependence on oil, and paints a credible picture — part critical, part humorous — of the life of a journalist in today’s media. Finely directed by Dan Barnard and Rachel Briscoe, it is well worth catching. Now that the programming of the Oval House is in the hands of joint directors Briscoe and Rebecca Atkinson-Lord, it feels like the venue has turned a corner.
© Aleks Sierz
