Crow’s Theatre & Obsidian Theatre/Flex, written by Candrice Jones, directed by Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, Guloien Theatre, Streetcar Crowsnest, closes May 18. Tickets here.
Just walking into the Guloien Theatre is a starting experience, because there in front of you is an actual basketball court.
What takes place on the court is dynamite, exhilarating theatre, not to mention that this Canadian premiere of American author Candrice Jones’ Flex is a fabulous showcase for a talented array of young Black female actors.
The Characters
Ken Mackenzie’s astonishing set is the backdrop for the trials and tribulations of a high school girls’ basketball team called Lady Train. It’s 1997 in the fictional Arkansas town of Plainnole, and while some of the girls dream of being scouted for the newly formed professional women’s basketball association, like any normal teenagers, they have a lot of other things on their minds.
As the play opens, the girls are waiting for their coach (Sophia Walker). They are also all wearing baby bumps so they will look like the pregnant April (Jewell Bowry). It seems that the coach won’t let any pregnant girl be on the team and they are trying to hide April’s condition. In fact, last year Lady Train lost three players — so what does that say about birth control in Plainnole?
Right from the start, we know there is a serious rivalry between Starra (Shauna Thompson) and Sidney (Jasmine Case). Starra has always been the hotshot, but with Sidney’s recent arrival from California, Starra now has some serious competition.
We also meet Cherise (Trinity Lloyd) who appears to be a youth minister and wants everyone to be baptized. She is in a tentative lesbian relationship with Donna (Asha James) who has the best one-liners in the play.
Starra is also given monologues that punctuate the action, and we find out about her mother, a former star player, and her blighted career, and the daughter wanting to achieve the greatness that her mother couldn’t. These narratives also give us a glimpse at the interior life of a teenager which underpins the vibrant collision of personalities taking place on the outside.
The Action
As conversations carry on, we go deeper into the girls’ lives. One confesses to a history of abuse. One tells of a life not as gilded as it seems. One is afraid of losing a loved one, and over-hanging these personal issues is the larger one of being Black in the rural South.
While all this is going on, the girls play basketball. And they really do play. They dribble and pass and shoot and it all looks real. The particularly tall Case is listed on the program as coaching her cast members and she did a right fine job. Case is also a standout among a group of very talented actors.
The heart of the play is April’s plea for help in solving her baby problem. Apparently you could still get an abortion in neighbouring Mississippi in 1997. The biggest flaw with the play is how the coach handles the situation.
The Production
Author Jones is on record as saying that her primary goal is to write, “love letters for and to women of the American South”, while in particular, “celebrating young Black women”. She has certainly given her characters such realistic dialogue that there is never a false moment on stage, despite some weaknesses in the plot.
The girls fight, they love, they hurt, they support. Some are outside, some are in, but ultimately, they care passionately about each other, and Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu is becoming one of our most gifted directors in establishing both character and situation.
Inspired lighting designer Raha Javanfar has transformed the lines of the basketball court into a pulsing light show of many colours which adds a real zest to what is an already punchy show. Thomas Ryder Payne had contributed the upbeat music between scenes along with some great sound effects, while Ming Wong‘s spot-on costumes include the distinctive Lady Train uniforms.
Flex
It seems the term flex means a continuity of offence — a movement down the court where the players screen and pass in interchangeable positions and in no fixed roles, allowing for instant adaptability.
Clearly it is this dynamic synchronicity that Jones has given to her characters, and for their part, this cast of young women form one of the tightest ensembles seen in any theatre this season.
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