Aaron Radwanski, Jen Robinson and Ivan Henwood in The Flick.
Pulitzer Prize winning play comes to Winnipeg
Sam, Rose, and Avery are rashly, foolishly, heartbreakingly and often nobly in pursuit of love, artistic fulfillment, enticing dangers, “prison” escape and, above all, self-respect. They live lives starkly different from conventional movie fantasies, but the power of movies to shape and affect their beliefs and behavior is still operative, and each of them draws upon cinema’s seductive current.
If only they didn’t need to keep this damned job.
Annie Baker’s 2014 Pulitzer Prize winning drama, The Flick, is set in a run-down movie theatre, which — like its trio of underpaid employees — is struggling to survive.
It comes to Winnipeg Oct. 18 to 22. The 28th Minute and Snakeskin Jacket co-production features a cast and crew of U of M students and alumni, starring Ivan Henwood, Aaron Radwanski, Jen Robinson and Thomas Toles. It’s directed by distinguished prof George Toles, English, Film and Theatre, and assistant-directed by UM alumnus Kevin Ramberran.
The action of the play occurs in the shadowy, decidedly unglamourous intervals after screenings, when the spectators have departed, and the theatre must be cleared of debris. The shoestring epic about working life is deceptively low-key and laden with surprise. Comedy and futility are evenly matched throughout this story, and neither can claim a decisive victory.
Charles Isherwood of The New York Times described the play as: “Hilarious and ineffably touching… Ms. Baker’s peerless aptitude for exploring how people grope their way toward a sense of equanimity, even as they learn to accept disappointment, is among the things that make her such a gifted writer.… This lovingly observed play will sink deep into your consciousness.”
Jessie Green of The Vulture writes: “Here are some things that do not happen in Annie Baker’s new play The Flick. A confessed love is not reciprocated. An unconfessed love is not reciprocated. (I think; much is mysterious.) A friend does not, in a pinch, help a friend. A sad person does not learn a happy lesson. The audience does not get a moral, or even a subject. Also missing in action: action. No one does anything generally regarded as theatrical.
“So what does happen in The Flick? A lot of sweeping and mopping of the floor of a grotty old movie house near Worcester, Massachusetts. Also the tenderest drama — funny, heartbreaking, sly, and unblinking — now playing at a theater near you.”
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The Flick by Annie Baker
Directed by George Toles
October 18 – 22
7pm nightly from Oct. 18 to 21; 2pm on Sunday, Oct. 22.
Rachel Browne Theatre
For more information see: http://snakeskinjacket.ca/
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