[Originally posted August 8, 2015]
THE FLICK:
I can understand why there might be some controversy about this winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It has little to do with content and everything to do with approach and execution. Either you like the intensively internal approach to contemporary naturalism or you do not. A deceptively simple story of employees of a small independent theatre still using film projection in the digital age, the relationships unfold in the tiniest of increments with some of the most (pick one) devastating/infuriating thoughtful/gratuitous pauses/silences/freezes/staring-contests that one might ever imagine. I kept trying to think of analogs. Think of the works of Harold Pinter missing much of the menace or the cooking scene in Miss Julie with a greater sense of relationship building. Classic TV fans might recall the slow front porch swing conversations led by Andy Griffith; now subtract some of the overt comedy (or add it back depending on the scene in question). For me the whole enterprise worked. It forced me to be thoughtful and patient, just as playwright Annie Baker would like to encourage us not to rush through her script. I will use it as an example for students of acting and directing in the ways that you can deepen a moment by maintaining the moment, keeping focus, and trusting the material as well as your collaborators. Could the plot have unfolded more quickly and economically? Possibly. However, I doubt that I will ever feel a more intimate and intuitive connection to characters.
