Review Roundup: FLEX Opens at Lincoln Center Theater

Lincoln Center Theater just celebrated opening night of Flex, a new play by Candrice Jones directed by Lileana Blain-Cruz. 

Flex features Brittany Bellizeare, Christiana Clark, Renita Lewis, Erica Matthews, Ciara Monique and Tamera Tomakili and sets by Matt Saunders, costumes by Mika Eubanks, lighting by Adam Honore, and sound by Palmer Hefferan.  Charles M. Turner III is the Stage Manager.

FLEX tells the story of a girls' high school basketball team from Plainnole, Arkansas. It's 1997, and the women of the Lady Train team are inspired by the successes of the WNBA. With aspirations of going pro, they must first navigate the pressures of being young, Black, and female in rural Arkansas. Will their fouls off the court tear their team apart? Or can they keep their pact to stick together through hell or high water? This powerful new play by Candrice Jones celebrates the fierce athleticism of women's basketball with all the adrenaline and swagger of a four-quarter game.

Lets see what the critics had to say...

Naveen Kumar, The New York Times: Perhaps it should be no surprise, then, that in the first scene of “Flex,” which opened at Lincoln Center Theater’s Mitzi E. Newhouse on Thursday, all of the players appear to be pregnant. As this tip-off to a slam-dunk New York debut makes clear, the playwright Candrice Jones excels equally in sly, sitcom humor and in the swift-tongued rhythms of teenage and athletic talk.

Robert Hofler, The Wrap: Blain-Cruz’s direction of her ensemble creates a forceful team of talented actors. They are most definitely not a great team of basketball players. Jones delivers a number of action scenes, interspersed throughout the play, which take us on to the court as the five women play basketball. Blain-Cruz has not found a sufficient degree of stylization to stage these moments of athleticism. As choreographed, the scenes make little sense sports-wise, and instead of taking us into the game, they expose the actors as not very good basketball players.

Allison Considine, New York Theatre Guide: Like a good basketball coach, Lileana Blain-Cruz navigates the lawless energy of teenagers from giddiness to hysterics through her skillful direction. And the play’s coach, aptly named Coach Francine Pace (Christina Clark), keeps the action on pace. She leads with a sternness that both frightens and activates the young players. The team is stacked with star players who deliver winning performances. There’s lots of running, jumping, and shooting hoops, and the cast plays the game effortlessly. Rounding out the Lady Train is the levelheaded Donna Cunningham (Renita Lewis) and the devout Cherise Howard (Ciara Monique), who provides a moral compass for the team.

Jonathan Mandell, New York Theater: The importance of teamwork, then, drives both the message of “Flex” — the very title of the play is the name of a specific strategy in the game that requires such teamwork – and the strongest moments of the production. But the plot has that teamwork threatened by the tensions, hidden desires, secrets and ambitions that put the individual characters at odds with one another and threaten the success of the team. And, compared to those ensemble moments, the play’s individual stories offer fewer thrills, and sometimes feel less authentic. 

Photo Credit: Marc J. Franklin