“It’s only in looking back that I realise we were always in motion, always morphing, always shifting. Weren’t we?”
Shifters, opens at the Bush Theatre on 16 February 2024. This surprising and playful world premiere, a new Bush Theatre commission written by Benedict Lombe (Lava, winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for Playwriting) and directed by Bush Theatre Artistic Director, Lynette Linton (August in England, Clyde’s) will star Heather Agyepong (School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play) and Tosin Cole (Doctor Who).
Tragedy brings Des and Dre crashing back into each other’s lives, carrying new secrets and old scars. Caught in the space between memory and reality, they must struggle to navigate the shifting borders that threaten to rewrite their past and reshape their future. A fierce romance for anyone desperate for a different kind of love story, Shifters is a tribute to the enduring power and fragility of memory and love.
Shifters continues Bene Lombe’s long relationship with the Bush under Lynette Linton and Daniel Bailey’s leadership. She was previously a member of the Bush Theatre’s Emerging Writers Group and was commissioned to write Do You Here Us Now for the theatre’s Protest series, produced in response to the murder of George Floyd and which was developed into her 2021 smash-hit, Lava, winner of the Susan Blackburn Smith prize. Shifters originated during long conversations with Lynette around the lack of narratives in mainstream media that speak to Black love and Black joy – Bene has written a touching, grounded, and deeply moving new play that follows childhood loves Dre and Des and what happens when they are reunited in adulthood.
This production is generously supported by Charles Holloway, and is part of our artist development programme, Staged by Jerwood. Staged by Jerwood is supported by the Jerwood Developing Artists Fund.
Tickets for Shifters are priced from £25 (concessions available) and can be booked at bushtheatre.co.uk or at the Box Office on 020 8743 5050.
