Crow’s Theatre & Obsidian Theatre/Flex, written by Candrice Jones, directed by Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, Guloien Theatre, Streetcar Crowsnest, closes Might 18. Tickets right here.
Simply strolling into the Guloien Theatre is a beginning expertise, as a result of there in entrance of you is an precise basketball court docket.
What takes place on the court docket is dynamite, exhilarating theatre, to not point out that this Canadian premiere of American creator Candrice Jones’ Flex is a wonderful showcase for a proficient array of younger Black feminine actors.
The Characters
Ken Mackenzie’s astonishing set is the backdrop for the trials and tribulations of a highschool ladies’ basketball group referred to as Woman Prepare. It’s 1997 within the fictional Arkansas city of Plainnole, and whereas a few of the ladies dream of being scouted for the newly fashioned skilled ladies’s basketball affiliation, like every regular youngsters, they’ve a whole lot of different issues on their minds.
Because the play opens, the women are ready for his or her coach (Sophia Walker). They’re additionally all carrying child bumps so they are going to appear to be the pregnant April (Jewell Bowry). Plainly the coach received’t let any pregnant woman be on the group and they’re attempting to cover April’s situation. In actual fact, final 12 months Woman Prepare misplaced three gamers — so what does that say about contraception in Plainnole?
Proper from the beginning, we all know there’s a critical rivalry between Starra (Shauna Thompson) and Sidney (Jasmine Case). Starra has all the time been the hotshot, however with Sidney’s current arrival from California, Starra now has some critical competitors.
We additionally meet Cherise (Trinity Lloyd) who seems to be a youth minister and desires everybody to be baptized. She is in a tentative lesbian relationship with Donna (Asha James) who has the perfect one-liners within the play.
Starra can also be given monologues that punctuate the motion, and we discover out about her mom, a former star participant, and her blighted profession, and the daughter wanting to realize the greatness that her mom couldn’t. These narratives additionally give us a glimpse on the inside lifetime of a young person which underpins the colourful collision of personalities going down on the skin.
The Motion
As conversations stick with it, we go deeper into the women’ lives. One confesses to a historical past of abuse. One tells of a life not as gilded because it appears. One is afraid of dropping a beloved one, and over-hanging these private points is the bigger considered one of being Black within the rural South.
Whereas all this is occurring, the women play basketball. And so they actually do play. They dribble and cross and shoot and all of it seems to be actual. The notably tall Case is listed on this system as teaching her forged members and he or she did a proper high quality job. Case can also be a standout amongst a gaggle of very proficient actors.
The guts of the play is April’s plea for assist in fixing her child downside. Apparently you possibly can nonetheless get an abortion in neighbouring Mississippi in 1997. The most important flaw with the play is how the coach handles the scenario.
The Manufacturing
Creator Jones is on document as saying that her major aim is to jot down, “love letters for and to ladies of the American South”, whereas specifically, “celebrating younger Black ladies”. She has definitely given her characters such life like dialogue that there’s by no means a false second on stage, regardless of some weaknesses within the plot.
The women struggle, they love, they damage, they help. Some are outdoors, some are in, however in the end, they care passionately about one another, and Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu is changing into considered one of our most gifted administrators in establishing each character and scenario.
Impressed lighting designer Raha Javanfar has remodeled the strains of the basketball court docket right into a pulsing gentle present of many colors which provides an actual zest to what’s an already punchy present. Thomas Ryder Payne had contributed the upbeat music between scenes together with some nice sound results, whereas Ming Wong‘s spot-on costumes embody the distinctive Woman Prepare uniforms.
Flex
It appears the time period flex means a continuity of offence — a motion down the court docket the place the gamers display and cross in interchangeable positions and in no mounted roles, permitting for immediate adaptability.
Clearly it’s this dynamic synchronicity that Jones has given to her characters, and for his or her half, this forged of younger ladies type one of many tightest ensembles seen in any theatre this season.
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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for varied cultural teams and universities, notably on the position of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson Faculty for the Arts.