BWW Reviews: NCTC's THE FLICK Drags Like a Bad RomCom

You know when you're in a store or restaurant or even a movie theater and you overhear the conversations of the workers and take that little peak into their lives? Well now there's a nearly three hour play about that, "The Flick" by Annie Baker currently performing from the folks at New Century Theatre Company. And it's only slightly more interesting than the real thing.

Baker's play focuses on the workday lives of three people in a run down, one screen movie house. Sam (Sam Hagen), the veteran theater worker guides newbie Avery (Tyler Trerise) through his menial tasks of taking tickets, selling concessions and cleaning up after each show while Rose (Emily Chisholm) runs the projection booth. And during their time cleaning up the leavings of the moviegoers they discuss their lives, movies, problems, movies, and the changing state of movie theaters. Oh and movies. And that's about it and that's the biggest problem with the piece. There's no overarching issue for them to overcome or really much of a plot to speak of. There are some minor conflicts brought up, some of which get resolved in a lackluster and predictable way and some of which just get dropped and never mentioned again. It was like a bad romantic comedy; all talk but no real story.

I'm at a loss as to why or what we were supposed to care about these people let alone why this play won a Pulitzer Prize. The dialogue is good enough (nothing forced or heavy handed) but the plot or lack thereof left me wondering what the point was. And the interminable scene breaks where we heard entirely too much of the end credit music of various films before the workers would come in only made me feel the excitement of actually working at this theater. And with the lack of interest in what they were saying I found myself paying more attention to whether or not they swept up all the popcorn. Now it wasn't a total waste of time. There were three scenes which did actually grab my attention. Two scenes where we actually delved into the inner emotional workings of these damaged people and which made me think we were actually going somewhere with this play. But then both of those potential plot points were abandoned. And then there was the big emotional payoff and crux of the play near the end where things all came to a head and how did Baker choose to make her point? By having one of the actors deliver an iconic speech from someone else's movie. So her big emotional payoff was someone else's dialogue? And here's your Pulitzer!

The performances in the piece are quite good and worth mentioning. Both Hagen and Trerise have their respective emotional breakdown moments and each inhabits the moment and sells it well. And Chisholm delivers a fine performance of a somewhat aimless young woman with plenty of layers. And all three made for a good and engaging ensemble. It wasn't the performances that left me asking why, it was the script.

New Century Theatre Company has had a track record, at least with me, of picking obscure gems and producing them beautifully. And while the latter element is there the choice of this piece left me wanting. But I guess you can't win them all and so with my three letter rating system I give this one a disinterested MEH. If you're going to make me listen in on the lives of others then give me a reason to care about those lives.

"The Flick" from New Century Theatre Company performs at 12th Avenue Arts through April 4th. For tickets or information visit them online at www.wearenctc.org.

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