Shifters, the Play About the Highs, Lows and Complexities of First Love

It has all the hallmarks of a typical first love. Two young teens challenge and size each other up. You experience awkward silences where nothing has actually happened, but something has changed. Awkward jokes cover up your true feelings. You navigate friction and misunderstandings, as one of you fails to read between the lines. All the while, over time, somebody is getting to the heart of you until you feel like you are truly known.

When we meet Dre and Des they’re much older. Tosin Cole, who you’ll recognise from Netflix’s inner-city sci-fi Supercell, and Heather Agyepong from Amazon Prime’s The Power, take on the challenge of crafting a joyful and kinetic vision of adolescence, to the anxiety of young adulthood, and then their professionally steady present where everything is okay on paper. But they have observed each other unfurl and have an intimate knowledge of each other’s habits, fears and quirks. The pair, who started off as debate partners in school up North, have been physically distanced but it takes very little time for them to slot back into their old dynamic. The question that lingers in their mind: is what we had the best it’s ever going to be?

Beyond just being a will-they-won’t-they romance play, Shifters is a play about the importance of being seen. Having transferred to the West End after a sold-out run at The Bush, the buzziest love story in London is back with an all-star production team. Its much-anticipated transfer means it has become the third stage show written by a Black woman to hit the West End; that historic opportunity brought Maya Jama, Little Simz and Idris Elba on board to upgrade the show. Writer Benedicte Lombe (who everyone in the cast and crew refers to as Bene) says the team have been “brilliant amplifiers for the show”, bringing in their networks and assisting with the star-studded opening night.

In an email to AnOther, Idris Elba wrote about how the show’s “ethereal, otherworldly” production emphasises the importance of being observed. “It has the atmosphere and beauty of a melodrama, but the intimacy it creates really sets it apart. The staging, with the audience facing each other, creates this incredible sense of connection. You’re not just watching the story, you’re sharing it with everyone around you – it’s like a fly on the wall approach to love,” explains the actor. “Bene’s writing is beautiful, accessible, powerful, and real. I knew I had to be involved.”

It’s another standout performance from Tosin Cole whose star rose earlier this year when he fronted the megahit Supercell. He tells AnOther that he has enjoyed that audiences are not afraid to “express themselves”. Keen viewers might see similarities as both characters are south Londoners who are hopelessly devoted to their first loves. However, he shakes his head at the question of whether this is autobiographical at all. “That’s crazy,” he laughs. “The lover man! Maybe I’ve just got one of those faces.”

“You’re not just watching the story, you’re sharing it with everyone around you – it’s like a fly on the wall approach to love” – Idris Elba

Heather, the leading lady, thinks the play’s potency lies in the fact that we are all shaped by our first loves. “You experience love outside of the familiar setting and sometimes that love is the first time you’re truly vulnerable so it’s a cornerstone of life,” she says. “You can either learn from it or it can keep you in a tailspin for a really long time. That experience is incredibly relatable and I think why it has resonated so much with our audience.”

The name for the play stems from the subtle changes that show how love is growing between you and another person and how that in turn changes those caught under its spell. As Dre says in a lovesick soliloquy: “​​Something is shifting between you – again. Something terrifying and comforting.” But while the characters are being pushed to be vulnerable, face their fears, and show their true face a switch occurs in the audience too.

When speaking to the cast about what they leaned on for inspiration a recurring response was that most of the Black stories that they grew up on and cherish are American, from Love and Basketball to Barry Jenkins’ If Beale Street Could Talk. And therein lies the importance of the fact that there is something like Shifters for people to go and watch in central London.

“We talk a lot about ‘shifting the canon’ because historically what is ‘canon’ has excluded so many of our voices, cultures and experiences,” says Bene. Which is why this play zones in on the energy of African family parties, the inter-community banter, even our distrust of Shea Moisture’s new formulas in their hair products. “Congolese music from Papa Wemba and dishes like ngai ngai – the fact that we can have all these culturally specific references and still ultimately make audiences from all walks of life feel like they’re watching their own love story unfold is a beautiful thing.”

Lombe is intentional about resisting hyperbole like “radical” or “game changing” because its power is in its celebration of the ordinary and the universality of love. “To me, Shifters is a no-brainer. We’re telling an authentic love story with nuanced, complex, funny, intelligent, three-dimensional Black British leads,” says Bene. Seeing them just navigate life is actually really simple. “And yet – when you look around, where are the other examples of this? So I hope this is an invitation – if you let us exist in our full humanity and showcase that on big stages – people will show up.”

Shifters is playing at the Duke of York’s Theatre until 12 October 2024.