5 / 10
“Shifters” toggles so frequently between time periods that the author often resorts to having one of the characters baldly announce their age before each passage, a prosaic if necessary device given the single costumes the actors wear and the lack of sets other than black lacquered boxes serving as seats as needed.
6 / 10
Shifters cribs from Constellations in other ways too. Instead of the color-shifitng balloons that hovered over the players in the original 2012 London production and the 2015 Broadway transfer, Linton places her two actors in a black cube surrounded by dangling strips of light. (Alex Berry designed the sets and costumes, and Neil Austin supplied the lighting.) The hashtag of lights shift in hue and intensity to mark the jumps in time as well as the mood of individual scenes. They also give us something to watch as the two leads drag out their will-they-or-won’t-they exchanges. Shifters runs 45 minutes longer than Payne’s play, but it feels slighter and less substantial. Even so, you’ll find yourself appreciating the engaging performances of two star-crossed souls who find their futures not in the stars but in themselves.
Following acclaimed runs at London's Bush Theatre and in the West End, Benedict Lombe's Shifters makes its North American premiere at Cherry Lane Theatre. Heather Agyepong reprises her Olivier Award-nominated performance opposite Daniel Ezra. Read the reviews.
Idris Elba, Little Simz, and Danai Gurira announced as producers for the North American premiere of SHIFTERS, Benedict Lombe's acclaimed romance, opening at New York's Cherry Lane Theatre following sold-out London runs.
The play Shifters, which is soon headed to A24's Cherry Lane Theatre, will be adapted into a TV series. Benedict Lombe’s play will be adapted by Channel 4 and See-Saw Films.
Cherry Lane Theatre will present the North American premier of Shifters, the new romance by Olivier Award-nominated writer Benedict Lombe. Learn more here!
