Review: THE FLICK at Stirling Community Theatre

Reviewed by Ewart Shaw, Saturday 22nd July 2023.

The Stirling Players take to the stage with The Flick, a much-awarded play by the American, Annie Baker. It takes place in a run-down movie house, and Adelaide has enough of those to make the context local. It’s probably where designers, Bob Peet and John Graham, sourced the tiers of seats that make up the set.

It is a long play, where very little happens, rather like Waiting for Godot, but not much. Towards the end, the sole actor on stage left and the lights went out. The audience applauded. However, one minor character had not appeared, so I knew we had more to come.

Director, Riordan Miller-Frost, and his cast make good use of the space, and the stage management crew, led by the director, managed spilled popcorn and other rubbish well.

As well as the seating we get a view into the bio-box, and that depth of perception is well-managed.

The title intrigued me. We generally refer to the motion picture as ‘the flicks’, but giving someone or something the flick is to discard them rapidly and unsentimentally. That happens here.

What carries the action is the cast. George Yankovitch, as Sam, turns in a marvellous performance, secure in accent and intention. He’s the long-time cleaner with aspirations to learn the equipment to show reels, and also to reveal his love for Rosie, who is the projectionist. Carolina Fioravanti, sexy and energetic, and with emotional depth that reveals itself as the play goes on, is an excellent foil. Christian Best, authentically black American, is the new cleaner. Avery is from a privileged background with an academic father, though he claims it takes him three buses to get to the theatre. He’s a vocally quieter presence, wearing a pink beanie that looked pretty weird to me. He’s also the one person in the story that has a life to go on with.

When the new owners of the theatre install digital technology, he salvages the old system with plans, maybe, to set up a movie club at College to do things the old way. The play by the way is set in 2021, at the start of the digital revolution that put old-style projectionists out of work. Having seen him in both The Triumph of Man, and After All This, at Rumpus, it was good to see his range. Benny Woodrow is the sleeping man in the first act and returns as Skylar, the new cleaner, the person Sam can introduce to the new culture.

Had I seen it at the start of the run I would have seen it again for the acting. I’m intrigued by what it was that made the play so successful in the United States.