The Flick

When it premiered at the Playwrights Horizons theater in 2013, The Flick inspired mixed reactions. Many audience members felt the play—at a duration of three hours—was too long and too slow-paced. What do you think Baker hoped to achieve with the play’s long pauses and extended moments without dialogue? Do you feel she was deliberately trying to test the audience’s patience? Why or why not?

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.