World Premiere Of THE FIXING GIRL Comes to the Young People's Theatre

This April, Young People's Theatre will present the much-anticipated world premiere of The Fixing Girl from celebrated UK playwright Kevin Dyer. Both tender and playful, The Fixing Girl tells the story of a young girl coming to terms with an event that is much bigger than her. Three generations of a family are portrayed by Zoé Doyle, Eponine Lee, and Canadian stage and screen veteran Eric Peterson (Corner Gas, Street Legal). Together, they tell a story about finding inner resilience in the face of life-altering change. This special limited engagement plays on the Ada Slaight Stage April 15 – May 2, 2024.

YPT will have Eric Peterson return to its stage for the first time since the 1980s, when he appeared in both Romeo & Juliet and Richard III. A Member of the Order of Canada, and recipient of the Governor General's Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award, Peterson returns to YPT in the role of “Grandad” in this heartfelt story for ages 8 to 13. In The Fixing Girl, Meghan is having a horrible day and her Mum is only making it feel worse. So she retreats to the backyard shed where she and her Grandad have always fixed broken things. It's there that she hopes to find the answer to feeling better – but instead finds only more questions. Can something that's broken become whole again?

This is the fourth collaboration between Playwright Kevin Dyer and YPT, with previous works including The Monster Under the Bed, Minotaur and Under the Stairs. “I love writing plays for YPT,” says Dyer. “They are one of the few theatre companies in the world that really take children and their world seriously. By that I mean, they try and make work that really acknowledges how young people are in this huge complicated world we have made for them.”

Children don't exist in isolation – even if they sometimes feel that way, explains Dyer. “This is a story of a girl and her Mum and her Grandad - and how tightly they are connected. When something happens to one of them, it affects them all; when one of them changes, they all change.” 

The Fixing Girl has been in development at YPT since 2017. “I'm always excited to return to the beautiful, poetic and truthful stories Kevin tells,” says Director Stephen Colella. “I hope when young people see this show that it helps them to feel greater empathy for others who may be struggling – or find ways to show kindness to themselves if they themselves are struggling too.”

Additional credits include: Set & Costume Designer: Anna Treusch; Lighting Designer: Jareth Li; Sound Designer: Olivia Wheeler; Video Designer: Joshua Hind; Assistant Sound Designer: Raha Javanfar; Stage Manager: Kat Chin; Apprentice Stage Manager: Emmanuelle So.

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