Flex - Review of 2025 Play by Candrice Jones at Crow’s Theatre

What comes to your mind when you hear the word raptor? If you think of a bird of prey that lived around 70 million years ago, you are not likely to enjoy Flex, Candrice Jones’ play now showing at Crow’s Theatre. If your mind leaps to the Raptors, Toronto’s basketball team, and you have seen a few games, you are in luck. Flex is about a girls’ basketball team in Arkansas and specifically in 1998 when the high school seniors of a small town are competing against other teams (and each other) for a state championship.
They have won the regional championship and are preparing for the big one, the state competition where the scouts are and a chance for the players to be given a scholarship. It is a ticket out of the dusty hellhole in Arkansas that all of them want to get out of. It is the driving force that impels them to work as a team to win but personal ambitions intervene and those ambitions supersede the all-important team effort, the esprit de corps  that will compel them to victory.
The first part of the play is set in half a basketball court where the girls are practicing and talking. It is a fast-paced scene where they talk fast as they practice shooting. Their individual characters start emerging. They have attended the same school and known each other for most of their lives. Starra (Shauna Thompson) considers herself the leader and she is considered as such by the rest of the girls. Cherise (Trinity Lloyd) is deeply religious and wants the other girls to be baptized. Sidney (Jasmine Case) is the new girl from California. The coach has made it clear that she does not want pregnant players and April (Jewell Bowry) is pregnant. What is to be done about her?
The religious Cherise is also gay and kisses Donna (Asha James) on the lips. She has issues with her feelings and is baptized more than once to cleanse herself of her sin.
Starra plays dirty and her character develops around her ambition and ruthlessness. She even tried to get Sidney (Jasmine Case) pregnant. She found condoms in Sidney’s locker and pricked holes in them! Cherise tells Starra that she knows about the holes in the condoms. Sidney is the golden girl from California and Starra is from the dirt courts of Arkansas.
Flex is a beautifully written play that dramatizes the plight of young girls in the American south.  The only way for these young people to get out of that rathole is by excelling in basketball and getting a scholarship. There is jealousy, treachery and decency. The actors who make up the team and Coach Francine (a superb Sophia Walker) make not only an outstanding basketball team but also a magnificent acting ensemble. Give the actors a standing ovation. The Creative Team lists a Basketball Captain (Jasmine Case), and a Basketball Coach (Alex Johnson). Between them they produced a highly credible team of basketball players.
Dialect Coach Peter N. Bailey trained the actors to speak in an accent, which may represent the patois of rural Arkansas, but at the speed at which they spoke combined with their abuse of the rules of grammar and nuanced pronunciation, I admit that I could not always follow what they were saying.
The set by Ken Mackenzie shows an impressive half of a basketball court and the scenes that do not take place there are done with a minimal number of props. The emphasis on the court is appropriate and impressive.
Director Mumbi Tindyebwa Out seems to have her work cut out for her. With an extensive Creative Team and a tough play, she was able to keep her eye on the ball (pardon the metaphor) and bring forth a stunning production. The only prescription is for you to go and see it and applaud loudly.
And the Raptors can use the discipline and esprit de corps of the girls from Arkansas without worrying about one of them getting pregnant.  
Flex  by Candrice Jones, in a Crow’s Theatre and Obsidian Theatre co-production, will run until May 18, 2025, at the Guloien Theatre, Crow’s Theatre, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.  http://crowstheatre.com/

(L to R) Trinity Lloyd, Asha James, Shauna Thompson, Jasmine Case, and Jewell Bowry in FLEX. Photo: Roya Del Sol

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