What you need to know:
- Award-winning writer Benedict Lombe’s hit play transfers to the west end this summer for a strictly limited 9 week run at the Duke of York’s theatre from August – 12 October 2024
- Heather Agyepong and Tosin Cole reprise their electrifying roles in this intoxicating and fierce new romance.
- Lynette Linton, Bafta-Nominated and Evening Standard Theatre Award-winner directs.
- Tickets from £20 go on general sale from 9am on Thursday 20 June 2024 with 50% off tickets for the first four weeks at £40 or under
- Audiences will have the opportunity to experience the production from the intimacy of the stage with on-stage seating for every performance.
Eleanor Lloyd Productions, Chuchu Nwagu Productions and Sonia Friedman Productions today announce that the Bush Theatre’s production of Shifters, Benedict Lombe’s intoxicating and fierce new romance will transfer to the West End this summer following a sellout run at the Bush Theatre earlier this year.
Heather Agyepong (School Girls; or The African Mean Girls Play, Lyric Hammersmith) and Tosin Cole (Netflix’s Supacell, BBC’s Doctor Who), whose electrifying performances received critical acclaim in the original production, will reprise their roles as young lovers Des and Dre for a strictly limited season of nine weeks at the Duke of York’s Theatre, London directed by BAFTA-nominated and Evening Standard Theatre Award-winner Lynette Linton (Blues forAn Alabama Sky, National Theatre; Clyde’s Donmar; August in England, Bush Theatre).
This epic and universal love story is about the enduring power of memory and young love.
Meet Dre and Des, they are young, gifted, Black. He stayed. She left. Years later they come crashing back into each other’s lives, carrying new secrets and old scars. Caught in the space between memory and reality, they struggle to navigate the shifting borders that threaten to rewrite their past and reshape their future.
Shifters’ transfer to the Duke of York’s Theatre, St Martin’s Lane, London marks a groundbreaking moment for Benedict Lombe who follows in the footsteps of Natasha Gordon (Nine Night) and Yasmin Joseph (J’Ouvert) as the third Black British female playwright to have her play staged in the history of the West End.
Set and Costume Design by Alex Berry, Lighting Design by Neil Austin, Sound Design by Tony Gayle, Composition by Xana, Movement and Intimacy Direction by Shelley Maxwell, Production Dramaturg is Deirdre O’Halloran, Voice Coach is Joel Trill and Casting by Heather Basten CDG.
Need to know: Shifters plays at the Duke of York’s Theatre St Martin’s Lane, London, WC2N 4BG from 12 Aug – 12 Oct 2024
Related links
- Shifters, Bush Theatre’s smash hit play by Benedict Lombe starring Heather Agyepong and Tosin Cole, directed By Lynette Linton transfers to the West End this summer
- Afridiziak 5 star review – Shifters, Bush Theatre
- Social Media handles X @ShiftersPlay | Instagram @ShiftersPlay
- Official website: ShiftersThePlay.co.uk
- Shifters played at Bush Theatre from 16 Feb – 30 Mar 2024
