Shifters Review

August 27, 2024

Shifters Review

12th August – 12th October 2024

Following a sell-out run at Bush Theatre, Shifters is relocating from West London to the West End for a nine-week run in the prestigious Duke of York’s Theatre on St Martin’s Lane.

Seeing as Shifters has been everywhere, from the tube to the Sunday Times Style magazine, it is probably on your play-dar, but if it’s not, it should be.

Not only is it a powerful exploration of the dizzying effects of first love, memory, reconnection, and trusting that you’ll end up where you’re supposed to be, it totally engages the audience, who audibly gasped, laughed, cheered, and sang for the best part of two hours.

Neither of these feats are small, and it takes a very special combination of chemistry, direction, and talent to make it work. So, it’s absolutely no surprise that Shifters boasts each one in abundance.

“Cole and Agyepong do a fantastic job of making it look easy as they move around the experimental stage in such perfect unison”

Written and directed by the brilliant and award-winning Benedict Lombe and Lynette Linton, Shifters is spectacularly brought to life by Tosin Cole, who plays Dre, and Heather Agyepong, who plays Destiny.

We meet them as argumentative, talented, and young sixth-formers and what starts as a friendship, develops into a decade-spanning will-they-won’t-they situation, as they navigate the peaks and troughs of growing up and moving on, reconnecting years later at Dre’s grandmother’s funeral.

Unsurprisingly, it’s not plain sailing, but as they point out: “No one writes a song about something easy”.

That being said, Cole and Agyepong do a fantastic job of making it look easy as they move around the experimental stage in such perfect unison, it is almost as though they are dancing.

Every moment is emphasised through meticulously considered lighting, gracefully transporting the audience between the past and the present.

Coupled with their chemistry, which is so visceral and tangible, you really feel as though you can reach out and touch it, one thing is guaranteed: the audience will be left on their feet, clapping passionately, and wilfully speculating over what happens next, crossing their fingers for part two.