Review: Shifters, Duke of York's Theatre - beautiful, funny, joyful and heartbreaking
22/08/2024
Shifters is the latest play to transfer from London's fertile fringe theatre scene into the West End. I didn't manage to see it when it premiered at the Bush Theatre, so I was grateful for the second chance to catch it at the Duke of York's Theatre.
To describe Shifters as a love story is to oversimplify its premise.
It is a story about the complex love and relationship between Des (Heather Agyepong) and Dre (Tosin Cole). They meet while sixth formers and subsequently disappear and reappear in each other's lives as they pursue their chosen careers, run from the past and cling to it.
The play starts with the grown-up Dre at his grandmother's funeral. He was close to his grandmother, and Des has unexpectedly flown in for the occasion, albeit arriving very late due to travel delays.
Their awkward, casual greeting becomes a trope that is revisited as the narrative flits back and forth, filling in the gaps in their relationship over the intervening years. Lighting changes help to denote different time points, as the two pop up in each others lives and reconnect.
They replay and avoid past events with equal measure.
Shifters' writer, Benedict Lombe, is skilled with naturalistic dialogue. Her words are brought bursting off the page in crackles and ripples by Heather Agyepong and Tosin Cole.
Benedict Lombe peppers the sparky conversation with poetic monologues, delivered to the audience, that add layers of insight into what each is thinking and feeling.
These monologues are both the source of humour and heartbreak, and that is this play. Des and Dre have an obvious connection, but life shapes and haunts their relationship from past traumas, grief, family relationships or work opportunities.
Love, like life, is never straightforward or simple, but it is all subtly done.
Both Heather Agyepong and Tosin Cole prove to be expert comic actors, generating laughs with looks and body language just as much as with a carefully delivered line. These lighter moments are equally matched by the poignant, creating some genuine lump-in-the-throat moments.
Shifters is a beautiful, joyful, funny and heartbreaking love and life story that had the audience laughing, gasping, and tearing up in equal measure. I'm giving it ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
I was given a press ticket.
Shifters, Duke of York's Theatre
Written by Benedict Lombe
Directed by Lynette Linton
Starring Heather Agyepong and Tosin Cole
Running time: 1 hour and 40 minutes without an interval
Booking until 12 October; visit the official website for more details and to buy tickets
Recently reviewed:
Farm Hall, Theatre Royal Haymarket ⭐️⭐️⭐️ and a half, booking until 31 August.
When It Happens To You, Park Theatre ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ booking until 31 August
Also by Benedict Lombe: Review of Lava, Bush Theatre