Stirling Theatre’s newest Director, Riordan Miller-Frost, in his program notes is totally honest when he says that his company’s latest production, “The Flick” transports us into the lives of three very average characters in a very average rundown American cinema.
It’s as well he does, for this is exactly what you are in for all night.
It’s a huge gamble on Miller-Frost’s part which doesn’t come off because all the characters just aren’t interesting enough to last two hours, despite the cast striving hard all night, especially without humour!
In fact, the only action is when George Yankovich and Christian Best sweep the floor!
Carolina Fioravanti completes the trio but isn’t given the lines to bring proper compassion or proper character development.
At a time when Australia is changing in its attitude to so many things, due to Covid, with all the negativity, selfishness, aggression, greed, rudeness and lazy incompetence, we need much more from our theatres. This simply doesn’t come across as a worthy experience to shake our lives back to some normality.
Taking “Skylight” as an example, there was a play you cared about, because the characters had so much more to them and took us gently into their world. Here the script lacks so much.
That said, it was good to see so many youngsters in the sparse audience, plus John Graham and Bob Peat’s set captures the atmosphere extremely well.
No doubt all the cast have a promising future, as does Miller-Frost, only next time choose a play that enriches, enlivens and uplifts our lives, which is what we all desperately need right now.
