The Flick (NT)

Getting great reviews.

The Guardian (5 Stars)
Daily Telegraph (4 Stars)
Evening Standard (3 Stars)
WOS (5 stars)
The Stage (5 Stars)

So if you want to see this, snap up the last remaining tickets, I now expect these to shift fast now.

I wouldn't say I didn't enjoy it, I don't understand what all the fuss was, I thought I missed something, so read the reviews to see what I missed and I missed nothing.

I agree earlier what you said about great performances and the senior usher had a cleft palete, which I didn't pick on and you did, must be down to all that medical school, he gave a great performance, but hard to describe why?

I guess I didn't find a play about changing over to digital projection and cleaning up other peoples popcorn riveting. I don't know if I would have had a more favourable reaction, if this didn't win the Pulitzer.

I'm at the matinee tomorrow and very much looking forward to it.

Saw this tonight, and loved it! Rufus Norris' National is on fire!

"The Flick" features a character Avery, who likes to play "6 Degrees of Separation." One character he must link with another character is Macaulay Culkin. Macaulay Culkin was in "Home Alone," which was written by John Hughes, who wrote and directed "The Breakfast Club."

An easier way of linking "The Flick" to "The Breakfast Club" is simply to point out what kindred spirits Annie Baker and John Hughes are.

Some spoilers follow, including for "The Breakfast Club":-

In John Hughes' movie, 5 teenagers from different cliques are sent to detention, and their minds are expanded as they relate to each other, and discover a common humanity. Romance blossoms, friendships form, and at the end of detention, they go their separate ways, changed and informed by their bonding experience.

In "Circle Mirror Transformation," 4 adults and a teen from different walks of life send themselves to an acting workshop, and their minds are expanded as they relate to each other and . . you get the picture.

"Circle Mirror Transformation" very much felt in the tradition of Hughes, with it's warm approach to our common humanity, the bonding, the revelations, the discoveries, the learning and the moving on.

Then Annie Baker did a wonderful thing. She asked herself, how do I tell this story again, but this time make it even more real, even more human, less melodramatic, more specific, and she wrote "The Flick."

In this play, she reduces the number of characters to their bare minimum, 3 (the least number of characters you can have in a roundelay of romantic attraction, which is also a sufficient number to include different sexes, races and socioeconomic classes), and she ups the running time, so that each character gets more stage time, more time to be defined. Instead of the drama of detention or the crazy emoting of an acting class, we get only mopping and cleaning.

The result is a typically generous examination of human foibles and existence in general, that rings true in every moment, featuring three wonderful performances.

Like Columbo, Matthew Maher's Sam always has one more thing to say. Jaygann Ayeh beautifully expresses the paralysis of his character, Avery's depression. And as Rose, Louisa Krause creates one of the most distinct, instinctive, quirky and loveable female characters I've ever seen on stage. You have got to see her dance lol!

Except for the superficial fact of watching people mop, this play is nothing like "Beyond Caring," which was a lascerating and political critique of how people on the margins are ignored and abused. Alexander Zeldin's play was less John Hughes, more Arnold Wesker.

What Baker has succeeded doing here is to reinvent John Hughes in 2016, for adults. She gives us a funny, realistic, warm take on what it is to be alive today.

5 stars

Well even a stopped clock tells the right time twice a day as I agree with Parsley and completely loved this and was pretty much absorbed from the start. Was dreading the lengthy first half but I was completely taken under its spell and the acting was just wonderful. Matthew Maher especially completely broke my heart in the second half.

We also had some minor excitement as a light bulb fell from the ceiling – I assume it wasn’t part of the play as the ushers looked concerned about it in the interval unless someone can tell me otherwise?

Well I have booked for this based on the reviews and comments here, going to a matinee but not until June. Am really not sure about this but I'm thinking an afternoon matinee, treat it like a novel or DVD box set and settle in for the long run without worrying about getting home or hunger pangs. Only concerned that I could only get the high stools at the back of the Pit which might be a bit uncomfortable for that time! Looking forward to it nonetheless (unless I find a new job before then in which case my ticket will have to go back into the pot...)

I was also at the matinee of this today and I too loved it. Such excellent use of silence and stillness. The pauses (and the facial expressions that accompanied them) were at times exquisite. I didn't find it dragged - it was just so engrossing.

I do understand your point about that phone call where really we only had words (dimly lit scene) and the silences left us to fill in the other half of the conversation which, although the gaps were undoubtedly realisticly timed, felt slow because we think more quickly than people speak (if that makes sense).

3*

hated the pauses, liked the play - just wished it all happened a bit more quickly. Seriously considered leaving at the interval. This odd last para which suggests to me "I didn't really get it but it supposed to be good so I won't slag it off"

Didn't happen when I saw it. Also the ceiling tile doesn't actually fall, it's just removed in the scene change.

Still a handful of seats for many performances (mainly front row, surprisingly cheap). Just bagged one this morning.

I'm going to this on Saturday and I've just received an email saying they've "upgraded" me from row C to row F! Has this happened to anyone else?