Interview: Director Niki Flacks on Love in the Insecurity Zone

Interview: Director Niki Flacks on Love in the Insecurity Zone

23 September, 2010
by: Naima Khan

Director Niki Flacks talks to Naima Khan about her zaney production of a play inspired by the equally zaney politics of the Bush years. 

Self-confessed demanding director, Niki Flacks, takes a break from rehearsals of her new play Love in the Insecurity Zone, soon to run at Hen and Chickens Theatre, to talk to me about the absurdly political, romantic comedy that also happens to be set in the future.

With a mighty laugh rivalled only by the likes of Brian Blessed, she admits, “I have rather high energy” – I can tell. “I demand high energy from my cast. I have a very clear sense of driving the play where I want it to go.” As much as Niki is driving the play, there's a stark indication that the play is driving Niki's energy levels sky high with its short scenes, and “off-centre” gun-wielding characters.

The plot is set in what the writer calls the near future and what Niki describes as something like “the green zone in Iraq. A safe area inside, rubble outside. In the play, that's the way the government is in Washington. They have a zone where everything is controlled. It's where people work and live if they're lucky enough to get a barcode. If they don't, they're thrust out to where the rebels live concocting their plans for overthrowing the government.”

Love in the Insecurity Zone covers a truckload of genres but “it is romantic at heart” says Niki. “Mike's plays have a life affirming sense that I crave as a director.” Mike being Mike Follie, a playwright renowned for his acerbic wit and bizarrely brilliant characters. Flacks and Follie have proved to be a great match and this is the fourth play of Mike's that Niki has directed. They have an affinity for each other, as she explains: “we bonded over politics during the Bush years. The two of us were so crazed over what was happening. We couldn't believe the stupidity of the people who thought he was doing OK. People just weren't paying attention.”

And it's right-wing politics that forms the frame for the theatrical rom-com which Niki believes will resonate with a London audience: “people are going to see parallels with the British government,” she says. “Your press is identical to ours – it talks about the couching of things, and information gets out only on the part of a few exceptional journalists.”

But this is an extreme vision of the current state of affairs, she says: “in the play, the government controls the press, they control everything in the security zone. What the government soon realise is everybody in the security zone is miserable.”

If this is starting to sound a little gloomy, fear not: it's Niki directing, remember. She has her own take on the dark side of politics and theatre: “I'm not attracted to plays that have the audience walking out thinking life is so dismal. The miserable characters we meet at the beginning soon find themselves in the Insecurity Zone and we meet the rebels who, of course, are wonderful! It's a comedy on top of that. What I love about Mike is, instead of hitting you over the head with a political diatribe, he shows it to you through absurdity.”

Niki also points out that the pursuit of happiness fuels the play: “the plot revolves around the government as they look for a way to create happiness pills. They want to find an enzyme they can reproduce to make people happy without making them drugged out, so they can still work. It centres on a character searching for a rare person who is naturally happy.”

Crazy though it sounds, you can rest assured Love in the Insecurity Zone has been crafted with the needs of a contemporary audience in mind. “There aren't very many good romantic plays any more,” Niki declares. “Revivals often fail because we've become too cynical and they're very slow. This play assumes cynicism.” And forget about things being slow: “the challenge is the play has to keep moving. We've got very short scenes and the set has to be very versatile. Our attention span as viewers has been altered by TV – we're used to quick cuts to the next scene and montage and all of that. For a theatre director and a designer [Rachel Smith], it's a huge challenge.”

Niki and her team gainfully take up their challenge at Hen and Chickens Theatre from October 5th 2010.

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Naima Khan