The stakes are high, the competition is intense, and the tension is palpable.
We’re sitting courtside, right on top of the basketball action. There are no bad seats, and the line between cheering spectator and active participant is blurred. No – it’s not the Raptors at the Scotiabank Arena. It’s Candice Jones’s FLEX, a Crow’s Theatre and Obsidian Theatre co-production directed by Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu that is now playing at the Guloien Theatre. And like a stadium filled with rabid sports fans, we’re all in on the gritty, exhilarating, and deeply human drama unfolding before us.
We’ve been transported to rural Arkansas, back in 1997. Michael Jordan has returned from his baseball interlude to dominate the NBA once more, and the WNBA has just been founded. The players we see practicing hard and playing with intensity are five seniors on the Lady Trains high school team. It’s the end of their last year as teammates in their last year of high school. Collectively, they dream of winning a championship. And as individuals, they’re reaching for their various next steps in life: two are good enough to imagine college scholarships and possibly the WNBA, and the rest have their own dreams and challenges.
Ken MacKenzie’s immersive set design enables the show’s visceral, slice-of-life plunge into the world of high school basketball. As spectators, we surround on three sides the lined, gleaming hardwood of a basketball half-court. The court’s markings extend up the wall at the back of the stage, creating the impression of a second, overhanging half-court. This striking configuration, surrounded by just a few tufts of grass, stands in for both the dusty outdoor court where the Lady Trains practice, and the cooler gymnasiums where they will fight for the championship. Dynamic lighting by Raha Javanfar, some of it embedded right into the lines on the two half-courts, pulses with the game’s rhythm, creating an environment where every dribble and shout reverberates through the space.
Flex centers on two players. The first is Starra Jones, the team’s leader and (natch) star, who is portrayed with intensity and wounded swagger by the magnetic Shauna Thompson. A commanding and uncompromising presence, Starra is deeply rooted in her community and has her eyes firmly on the prize — so she hoops hard and barks orders at her teammates. But when the court clears, she looks skyward and shares her dreams and fears with her dead mother, who was herself a high school basketball star before her untimely death. The second key player is her teammate and rival Sidney Brown, played by a luminous Jasmine Case. A confident and gifted newcomer from Oakland, Sidney is still absorbing her surroundings, and working to build relationships and find her place on the team. But she knows her worth, her goals, and the hidden struggles that have forged her — and she will not be denied her full place on the team or her shot at a scholarship.
While FLEX is most interested in these two stars’ conflict, its success – like that of any great basketball team — depends on consistently strong performance from all the players. Trinity Lloyd’s Cherise Howard, another senior grappling with faith and identity, brings depth to her portrayal of a young woman torn between the strong religious convictions and the equally strong currents of sexual attraction and loyalty to friends. As teammate April Jenkins, Jewell Bowery navigates the emotional turmoil and practical consequences of teenage pregnancy with anguished authenticity. And Asha James’s Donna Cunningham, the last and most grounded of the Lady Trains’ starting five, shows a deft touch for insightful straight talk and welcome levity. Finally, Sophia Walker’s coach Francine Pace anchors the team with a blend of fierce discipline and maternal care. The strict and smart voice of experience, she once played with Starra’s mother: so she’s seen it all, and has evolved an on-court playing style and rules for off-court conduct that are demanding, but designed to enable team success. How to live within them – and up to them – is the challenge facing the five Lady Trains.
Jones, who is a poet and educator from Dermott, Arkansas, has interlaced compelling narratives that capture the aspirations and challenges of these six southern Black women. And whether the characters are exhorting, challenging or dressing down one another — or commiserating, bickering, and even brawling — their dialogue crackles and pops with authenticity. Each actor owns every great word of it, and embodies all aspects of the narrative it serves.
As a result, the experience of watching Flex is immersive and almost cinematic – especially when the talented cast hit the hardcourt floor. Under Otu’s direction, the play seamlessly integrates its live basketball sequences, which were choreographed with the assistance of former Team Canada player Alex Dean Johnson. These moments are not just simulations: they are executed with an athletic precision that enhances the narrative’s authenticity and immerses us in the high stakes of each game or one-on-one confrontation. When the hoops action ramped up, I found myself in two places. As a sports-lover, I relished the athleticism and drama. But because the story stakes were so real, I also held my breath – wondering if the actor would sink the key shot or take the charge credibly, and wondering about the story consequences if they didn’t.
The show’s amazing set is more than just a vehicle for delivering this realism: it’s a metaphor for the larger challenge at the center of the story. The net hanging off the wall at center-stage is also dead center of the free throw line of that second half-court visible on the back wall. So the spot where the Lady Trains sink their throws and score their points is the same place from which opponents or teammates launch their own attempts to score. Winning and losing are mirror images, inextricably intertwined — and FLEX is very much a play about learning how to win and how to lose, and how to do both while uplifting, rather than sabotaging your fellow players.
The Lady Trains’ stories center themes of ambition, identity, and the pursuit of greatness – and they also challenge the notion of likability: urging discernment in a world that too often seeks to homogenize individuality. The show title “Flex” refers to a specific play Coach Francine has designed that requires all of the Lady Trains to prioritize ball movement and unselfish decision-making, in service of the team’s collective good. It’s something the team practices . . . but the critical question is whether they really, truly buy in. They will need to know and truly trust each other – warts, pregnancies, attempted betrayals and all. And they will also need to trust the process — and not see a teammate’s successful shot as their own missed opportunity, or their different life choice as a disqualification for friendship. Whether and how Starra and Sidney can transcend their rivalry – and whether and how the others can come to grips with their own reckonings – makes for gripping theatre.
In its Canadian premiere, FLEX stands as a testament to the power of storytelling that is both specific and universal. As Toronto looks ahead to the Toronto Tempo joining the WNBA in 2026, FLEX conjures a pivotal moment in sports history, which resonates with contemporary discussions about race, gender, aspiration and opportunity. The production invites audiences to witness not just a thrilling game, but the intricate dance of dreams, challenge, community . . . and the relentless pursuit of one’s shot at greatness.
FLEX, a Crow’s Theatre and Obsidian Theatre co-production, runs until May 18, 2025 at Streetcar Crowsnest. The run time is 2 hours and 15 minutes including intermission. Reserve tickets at crowstheatre.com.
© Scott Sneddon, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2025
