Shifters
- 1hr 40min. No Interval.
- Duke of York's Theatre
Shifters photos
- Booking details
- Booking until: Saturday, 12 October 2024
- Running time: 1hr 40min. No Interval.
- Age restrictions
- Important information - Please read
Shifters description
It sold like hot cakes at the Bush Theatre. Now it’s been given a well-deserved West End transfer. Welcome to Shifters, fresh from the playwright who gave us the prizewinning Lava. Everyone remembers their first love and how intense it was. This play explores it, a beautiful romance with a twist.
Benedict Lombe, the Congolese-British author whose 2021 debut won the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, is back. Audiences adored this production at the Bush, and we predict it’s going to set the West End alight as well.
Will true romance win this time around?
Dre and Des meet at school and eventually fall in love. He stays, she leaves, but they never forget each other. First love is powerful and profound, but will it be enough to reunite this couple? And is being someone’s soul mate enough to keep you together?
This fluid, dreamlike production stars Heather Agyepong (School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play) and Tosin Cole (Supacell, BBC TV’s Doctor Who). The drama is directed by Evening Standard Theatre Award winning Lynette Linton, who gave us Blues for an Alabama Sky and August in England.
Cool set, great creative team
The creative team includes set and costume design by Alex Berry, lighting design by Neil Austin, sound design by Tony Gayle, composition by Xana, plus movement and intimacy direction by Shelley Maxwell. Production dramaturg Deirdre O’Halloran and voice coach Joel Trill are joined by Heather Basten, who cast the production. The producers are Eleanor Lloyd Productions, Chuchu Nwagu Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions.
The production is a masterpiece in minimalism, skilfully simple staging that gives big emotions the space they need. Neil Austin’s overhead lighting enhances the drama as well as giving clues about which time the action is taking place: the distant past, the middle years or now? Add sound designer Tony Gayle and composer XANA’s contributions and you get the perfect backdrop for the story to unfold.
