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 courtroom.
What takes place on the courtroom is dynamite, exhilarating theatre, to not point out that this Canadian premiere of American creator Candrice Jones’ Flex is a wonderful showcase for a gifted array of younger Black feminine actors.
The Characters
Ken Mackenzie’s astonishing set is the backdrop for the trials and tribulations of a highschool women’ basketball crew referred to as Girl Prepare. It’s 1997 within the fictional Arkansas city of Plainnole, and whereas a number of the women dream of being scouted for the newly shaped skilled ladies’s basketball affiliation, like every regular youngsters, they’ve a variety of different issues on their minds.
Because the play opens, the ladies are ready for his or her coach (Sophia Walker). They’re additionally all sporting child bumps so they’ll appear to be the pregnant April (Jewell Bowry). It appears that evidently the coach received’t let any pregnant lady be on the crew and they’re making an attempt to cover April’s situation. The truth is, final yr Girl 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 an adolescent which underpins the colourful collision of personalities going down on the surface.
The Motion
As conversations keep on, we go deeper into the ladies’ 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 ladies play basketball. They usually actually do play. They dribble and cross and shoot and all of it appears actual. The notably tall Case is listed on this system as teaching her forged members and he or she did a proper tremendous job. Case can also be a standout amongst a bunch of very gifted actors.
The center of the play is April’s plea for assist in fixing her child drawback. Apparently you would nonetheless get an abortion in neighbouring Mississippi in 1997. The largest flaw with the play is how the coach handles the state of affairs.
The Manufacturing
Writer Jones is on document as saying that her major objective is to jot down, “love letters for and to ladies of the American South”, whereas specifically, “celebrating younger Black ladies”. She has actually given her characters such sensible dialogue that there’s by no means a false second on stage, regardless of some weaknesses within the plot.
The ladies struggle, they love, they damage, they assist. 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 state of affairs.
Impressed lighting designer Raha Javanfar has remodeled the strains of the basketball courtroom right into a pulsing mild 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 Girl Prepare uniforms.
Flex
It appears the time period flex means a continuity of offence — a motion down the courtroom the place the gamers display and cross in interchangeable positions and in no fastened roles, permitting for fast 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 kind 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 function 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.