The Flick

“Sometimes people stay until the end of the credits. But then they go […] And they’ll get the message when you start sweeping.” 

These lines are spoken by Sam in the play’s first scene, as he trains Avery on the process of cleaning the theater. When Avery asks what they should do if people refuse to leave once the movie is over, this is Sam’s lightly-poetic reply. This moment foreshadows their brief encounter with The Dreamer in the act’s fifth scene, which serves as a suggestive metaphor for the “sleepy” quality of Sam and Avery’s own lives. These lines insinuate that perhaps, in their own individual ways, these workers have lingered too long in a state of arrested development, and that they are about to contend with a rude awakening. 

“Sundays and Mondays is Brian and Rebecca. But you’ll never meet them because you’ll never work Sundays and Mondays.” 

Here, Sam explains the permanent part-time status of The Flick’s theater workers, hinting at his own frustrations with the job’s lack of upward mobility. Sam’s character, in part, symbolizes the plight of the working class; with no money to fall back on and little education, it’s dangerous for them to leave the job they have. Often, however, there is also no chance of being promoted.