The Cast Photo by Jessica Palopoli

Add to that last list Candice Jones' Flex, which opened this week in a production at San Francisco Playhouse, directed by Margo Hall. Flex tells the story of the Plainnole, Arkansas high school girls basketball team as they struggle to unite and achieve shared and individual goals.

Most plays that take place in the world of sport concern action that primarily–if not entirely–happens off the field of play. (Though Colossal, which SF Playhouse produced a few years ago, spent significant time recreating in slo-mo the on-field action that cost a player dearly, and Rocky included a boxing ring on stage for its final bout.) The reason seems clear: it's nearly impossible to recreate the speed and action of sport on stage.

But the lack of verisimilitude in sport is not the main problem with Flex, which portrays the action on stage by asking us (as theatre so often does) to suspend our disbelief and imagine an opposing quintet playing against the girls in the final game that serves as the climax of the play. No, the main problem for me with this production is the lack of any real chemistry among the five young performers who compose the cast, and Jones' too-long text.

Flex centers around Starra Jones (Santeon Brown), the hot-headed wannabe superstar point guard of the team, who dreams of getting a college scholarship to play ball, and moving on to the then-nascent WNBA. (The play takes place in 1998.) But Starra has challenges: though she is the team's captain, she tends to be a bit of a ball hog and is threatened by the newest member of the team, Sidney Brown (Paige Mayes), a transfer from California whose skills seem to outshine Starra's.

Starra, whose mother was evidently killed while serving in the military in the Middle East, sees basketball as her way off the dirt courts of her home, and a far better prospect than "working at the prison around the corner." In soliloquies delivered to her dead mother, Starra reveals her dreams and anxieties.

The other teammates have their dramas and dreams, as well. Sidney is the most balanced and centered of the characters and has already been scouted by a Division I NCAA team. Cherise (Emma Gardner) is a delightfully charming Christian, always on her teammates to get baptized–even though she and Donna (Courtney Gabrielle Williams) are having a secret sexual relationship. But it's April (Camille Collaço) who has the most on her plate, as she has broken the team's pledge of "no drinking, no smoking, no sex" by getting pregnant–the fact of which has caused Coach Pace (Halili Knox) to bench her.

Though the characters gather at a sleepover at Sidney's house, and workout together on Starra's dirt court, there is a lack of any real chemistry among the girls. They feel only loosely connected in their happier times, but when tension arises, we don't feel it as deeply as we need to–their arguments seem like nothing more than raised voices in an acting class, not like true adolescent conflict that can blow relationships to smithereens. The one kiss between Cherise and Donna lacks any true passion, and Starra's selfishness doesn't get the chill it deserves from her teammates. They speak the right lines, but without the requisite intensity the lines require.

Jones' play also lacks a sense of existing in a real world. Why would the coach bench a player who is only a few weeks pregnant, despite the coach having seen tragic results from ignoring a pregnancy in the past? There are others, but they might spoil the action for you. Her text could also use some tightening to speed the plot.

Technically, the staging is quite well done.  Bill English has created a lovely set, with basketball standards both stage left and right, with one side representing the high school's gym and the other Starra's dirt court at home. The turntable is put to good use bringing a prop car on stage, and Ray Archie's sound design brings a sense of the game to our ears. (Though I wish he had kept the volume down at the top of act two, when the sound of the car radio often drowns out the lines the performers are speaking. And whoever made the banner that recognizes the team's championships in "Girl's Basketball" needs a remedial course on the proper use and placement of apostrophes.)

Flex is a well-intentioned attempt to take us behind the scenes of a group of young athletes, but its attempt at drama sadly fizzlesbasketball standardsin part because of Candrice Jones' overwrought text, and the lack of chemistry from this cast. Perhaps as the run continues the young performers will find their rhythm. But for me, this one has fouled out.

Flex runs through May 2, 2026, at San Francisco Playhouse, 450 Post Street, San Francisco CA. Performances are Tuesdays-Thursdays at 7:00pm, Wednesdays at 2:00pm and 7:00pm, Fridays at 8:00pm, Saturdays at 3:00pm and 8:00pm, and Sundays at 2:00pm. Tickets are $52-$145. For tickets and information, please visit www.sfplayhouse.org or call the box office at 415-677-9596.