Mr Fix It by Caroline Russell King runs at Lunchbox Theatre until Feb. 27
Tickets: 403 265 4292 x 0 or boxoffice@lunchboxtheatre.com
Three stars out of five

Mel (Brian Jensen) lives in a suite in the Palliser hotel, surrounded by his life’s work: broken down coffee makers, bolts, assorted screws and random parts strewn about in boxes. (He memorizes each down to the serial numbers).

He’s a fixit man who has turned a mind for numbers into a triumph of franchising: 37 Mr. Fixit shops are out there, churning out revenue, and plans are afoot for possible U.S. expansion.

None of it, however — the good memory, the business success, the swanky hotel suite — is of much use to Mel on the day he receives a surprise 9 a.m. visit from Edna (Barbara Gates Wilson), his ex, in Caroline Russell-King’s new comedy Mr. Fix It, which had its world premiere Tuesday at the Lunchbox Theatre.

Edna and Mel, despite having several kids, a new grandchild and a rags-to-riches story, have long since gone their own ways. In fact, Edna has a new fiance, a yoga instructor named Donald, and a wedding date Mel announces he is unavailable to make, before she even tells him when it is — or whether he’s even invited.

The only hitch in Edna’s getting hitched to Donald is that through some quirk of lawyerly incompetence, she is still married to Mel.

Mr. Fix It is about a contest of wills between Edna wanting Mel to re-sign off on the divorce, while Mel, true to his nature, sees the legal flub as a sign that he ought to try to fix things with the ex.

Both Jensen and Gates Wilson have an easy chemistry with each other that makes the scenario of them being ex-spouses grappling uneasily with late-in-life singledom quite believable, albeit in a sitcom ex-husband and wife kind of way as much as an actual ex-husband and wife. (It doesn’t help sell the story that both actors appear to be about a decade or two too young for their parts, and the fortysomething Jensen doesn’t seem to be the right casting for the character of Max, who sounds a lot like like an irascible sixtysomething even if he looks a little like a young-ish William Hurt.)

Although maybe that’s just show business.

While the play starts out seeming to be little more than a scenario in which to hang a lot of one-liners, things do take a turn towards emotional closure for Edna and Mel, (although the direction they take feels a little contrived).

Gates Wilson and Jensen might be a little short in the tooth to play their respective roles, but both deliver crisp, comedic performances that do a nice job of highlighting the brightest comic moments in the show.

It’s all briskly and effectively directed by Kevin McKendrick, who keeps the tempo up without having the actors devolve into caricature.

Mr. Fix It was written by King as an homage to Neil Simon, particularly his hotel comedies such as California and Plaza Suite, and it certainly does feel and sound like something Neil Simon might have written, set in the Palliser Hotel. King keeps the tempo turned up and the quips flying, with nary a pause for reflection. Whether that’s your idea of engaging comedy probably depends on how well you love Neil.

shunt@theherald.canwest.com

Brian Jensen and Barabara Gates Wilson in Lunchbox Theatre’s production of Mr. Fix It. Stuart Gradon, Calgary Herald