Less than a year ago Toronto celebrated the announcement of the first official WBNA team outside of the US - The Toronto Tempo. Now, Crow’s Theatre and Obsidian Theatre come together to produce the Canadian Premiere of Candrice Jones’ adrenalin-fueled play about a young girl’s dream to join the WNBA - FLEX - on stage April 15 to May 18 in the Guloien Theatre.

Directed by Obsidian’s celebrated Artistic Director Mumbi Tindyebwa Otu, the production features an electric ensemble of Black talent including Jewell Bowry, Jasmine Case, Asha James, Trinity Lloyd, Shauna Thompson and Sophia Walker.

A tribute to both the awesome power and potential of young Black women and to the cultural energy of the 90’s, FLEX takes audiences back to 1997 and the WNBA changing the game. Every player on Plainnole’s Lady Train High School basketball team dreams of going pro. But first, they must navigate the pressures of being young, Black, and female in rural Arkansas, where a mistake on the court can become a foul in real life. With the swagger, determination, and adrenaline of a four-quarter game, FLEX celebrates fierceness, athleticism and what it means to take your shot.

Tindyebwa Otu was immediately attracted to the show for its formal innovation, bringing live basketball into a theatrical context, “I’m always drawn to pieces that experiment with form in a way I haven’t seen before,” she shares. “One of the first things that grabbed my interest was the basketball happening live on stage and the unique challenges of directing that energy and constant movement.”

“This show also spotlights the incredible power of young Black women in all their fierceness, as well as the role basketball has played in Black communities as an economic ticket out. FLEX is permeated with the intensity and urgency of hope for that ticket…. the amazing possibility of the WNBA.”

“We are thrilled to have Obsidian back at Crow’s again this season with this thrill-ride of a play,” adds Crow’s Theatre Artistic Director Chris Abraham. “FLEX speaks to so many people – young people, parents of daughters, parents of athletes, basketball lovers, 90’s culture fans, and of course lovers of great theatre. It is the kind of show we absolutely love at Crow’s - wildly entertaining and of the moment.”

The 90’s was a peak moment of basketball fever in the US with ‘Dream Team’ mania surrounding the men’s 1992 Olympic team and the founding of the WNBA in 1996. Jones’ play also celebrates the music of the decade, peppered with 90’s female hip hop and pop groups including TLC and SWV.

Playwright Candrice Jones is also a poet and educator, hailing from Dermott, Arkansas. She has said that her primary goal as a writer is to write love letters for and to women of the American South. FLEX had its major stage premiere at New York’s Lincoln Centre Theatre in the summer of 2023.

Joining Tindyebwa Otu on the creative team are basketball coach - and former Team Canada player - Alex Dean Johnson, set and props designer Ken Mackenzie, costume designer Ming Wong, lighting designer Raha Javanfar and sound designer Thomas Ryder Payne.

FLEX runs Tuesday to Saturday at 7:30pm, Wednesday, Saturday, and Sunday at 1:30pm.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.crowstheatre.com or call 647.341.7390 ext. 1010 or email boxoffice@crowstheatre.com or drop by 345 Carlaw Avenue (at Dundas Street East).