The Flick

The opening scene of The Flick presents the theater audience with a set of theater seats, which faces the play’s viewers to watch a “movie” that cannot be seen. What role does the old movie theater setting play in The Flick? How does art mirror life (and vice versa) in Baker’s script?

The Flick examines various race, class, and gender-based stereotypes each character “performs” throughout the play. As the characters continue to learn about each other and are forced to confront their assumptions about each other, their word choices, body language, and behaviors shift and change. Choose one character and track their changing development over the course of the play, paying close attention to the ways other characters respond to these changes.

Why is Sam so disturbed in the moment when Skylar touches the movie screen toward the end of the play? What does this response tell us about the relationship between movies (especially screens, where film images are projected) and Sam’s perspective on his life?

From the Facebook romance of Avery’s mother to Sam’s attempt at online dating, The Flick raises questions of what friendship, love, and intimacy means in an era of distancing technology. What claim does this play make about the effect of technology on relationships?

Though the workers at The Flick wear uniforms, they all differentiate themselves with their own items of clothing, such as Sam’s Red Sox cap, Avery’s red sneakers, and Rose’s green hair. What do these personal markers tell us about each character? What effect does the change in management (and transition to new uniforms) have on the self-presentation of each character? Most importantly, what do these shifts in self-presentation suggest about personal changes going on beneath the surface?

Illness and disability are reoccurring themes in The Flick, encompassing Sam’s bother, Sam’s red skin bumps, Avery’s “shit-phobia,” and Avery’s severe depression. How does the work environment of The Flick interact with theses (perceived) illnesses and disabilities? How do these interactions serve as an implied mirror of their lives outside of The Flick?

Though Avery briefly returns to the theater and joins in Sam’s peace-making game of “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” he leaves the scene without finishing the game. Do you think Avery has forgiven Sam for his failure to defend him? Why or why not?

Many of the films referenced in The Flick—especially Pulp Fiction, Jules et Jim, and The Wild Bunch—foreshadow the play’s events, speak to its themes, and slyly comment on the emotional state of its characters. Choose one of these films (Pulp Fiction, Jules et Jim,orThe Wild Bunch) and examine three major ways in which the film and the play correspond with one another.