Benedict Lombe’s most recent play, Shifters, is a thing of beauty both on the stage and on the page.
Dre(am) and Des(tiny) met as children, connected, and almost … but she left and he stayed. Now, at his nana’s funeral, they meet again.
Arranged across five acts in a 105-minute runtime, Shifters moves between the past and present in a flash, always with the same two characters meeting up in some way.
With the lighting and structure perhaps inspired by Nick Payne’s Constellations, Lombe and directer Lynette Linton nevertheless take Shifters off on its own path.
The performances are sublime. Torin Cole’s Dre and Heather Agyepong’s Des are funny, proud, and heartbreaking in their inability to communicate fully with each other.
They may belong together but are destined to be apart. The character names give a sense of the story as the dreamer stays put in the place of his birth, the pragmatist destined to roam.
Xana’s music and Tony Gayle’s sound design is key to understanding this pair, while Neil Austin’s lighting sharply illuminates the traverse stage while handling intimate moments with ease.
In a set (by Alex Berry) of boxes that hold the various props needed to move the plot along, the two actors are guided through an engrossing story by Linton’s ability to capture the smallest of moments, aided by Shelley Maxwell’s movement direction.
The actors find an open and honest truth in their characters across a 16-year timespan. Scenes blend into each other like shifting sands or a hesitant embrace. The text is rich and deep – I wanted to read the playtext almost immediately.
This is a sharp piece of drama that shows how people might change on the surface while not changing at all inside and how a touch can say more than a thousand words.
A tiny niggle might back that tighter backstories could add a little more, but there is enough here to intrigue an audience.
Shifters is an intelligent play and shows that Lombe is a writer to watch. She has a brilliant sense of observation and a provoking style that demands you sit up and take notice.
Shifters is at the Bush Theatre until 30 Mar with tickets here.
***.5
Image credit: Craig Fuller