Cast and Creatives Set For SHIFTERS at Bush Theatre

Shifters opens at the Bush Theatre on 16 February 2024.  This surprising and playful world premiere, a new Bush Theatre commission written by Benedict Lombe (Lava, winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for Playwriting) and directed by Bush Theatre Artistic Director, Lynette Linton (August in England, Clyde's) will star Heather Agyepong (School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play) and Tosin Cole (Doctor Who).

Tragedy brings Des and Dre crashing back into each other's lives, carrying new secrets and old scars.  Caught in the space between memory and reality, they must struggle to navigate the shifting borders that threaten to rewrite their past and reshape their future.  A fierce romance for anyone desperate for a different kind of love story, Shifters is a tribute to the enduring power and fragility of memory and love. 

Shifters continues Bene Lombe's long relationship with the Bush under Lynette Linton and Daniel Bailey's leadership.  She was previously a member of the Bush Theatre's Emerging Writers Group and was commissioned to write Do You Here Us Now for the theatre's Protest series, produced in response to the murder of George Floyd and which was developed into her 2021 smash-hit, Lava, winner of the Susan Blackburn Smith prize.  Shifters originated during long conversations with Lynette around the lack of narratives in mainstream media that speak to Black love and Black joy - Bene has written a touching, grounded, and deeply moving new play that follows childhood loves Dre and Des and what happens when they are reunited in adulthood.

Director Lynette Linton said, ‘Having Bene back is so dope. We love her, we trust her - and she also trusts us. It feels like a match made in heaven, and we knew that she was going to write a show that was going to absolutely bang.

Working with her on Shifters - it really struck me why we make these shows and what our function is. At the Bush, we provide artists with a platform, and the space to develop and grow. Our job is to give them all the right opportunities so that they can jump off that platform and fly. Ultimately, as they move on to bigger realms and higher echelons as Bene has, they know that they can always come back, and that love is ongoing..

We wanted the opportunity to celebrate Black love in its entirety and commissioned this new show with that in mind. It has been so amazing exploring that with Bene, who writes dialogue and romance in a way that no one else can. Our first conversations focused a lot on how it is to be a whole person - experiencing love. We discussed how to express that ‘wholeness' in regard to Black characters that are so often reduced to an assumed monolith. We wanted to see what would happen if we focused on two individuals, exploring their own sense of selves - right out to the peripheries. 

We spent a lot of time discussing what it is to ‘shift' through time and space - recognising different versions of ourselves. The difference between even the first and second draft was huge, and we got to see Bene grow to really trust herself and arrive at what she does best. She has such a talent for finding the poetry of each character and really understanding their voices.

When people see Shifters, I think they will leave with a fresh perspective on relationships - and what happens when you throw out the rule book. I can see people leaving with a lot of questions to apply to their own life: about decisions they have made, people they should reach out to. So much of the show is about how someone can totally alter your understanding of yourself, and how that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Also I can't wait to work with Tosin and Heather. What incredible actors we have to tell this story!.'

Benedict Lombe is a Kinshasa-born British Congolese writer based in London. Her debut play Lava received its world premiere on the main stage of London's Bush Theatre in 2021 to critical acclaim. Benedict was awarded the 2022 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for Lava, becoming one of the first writers in the prize's history to win the award for a debut play. In addition to this, she has won a Black British Theatre Award, was nominated for the Alfred Fagon Award for Best New Play of the Year, and Lava was also awarded the Best Performance Piece Off West-End Award.

Further theatre work includes an attachment at The National Theatre Studio, a commission for the Charleston Festival and other new plays in development. For screen, she has been commissioned to develop an original feature film, has taken part in BBC Drama Room Writersroom 21-22, and is developing original projects for television.

Lynette Linton is Artistic Director of the Bush Theatre. She was previously Associate Director of The Gate Theatre and the Resident Assistant Director at The Donmar Warehouse. Her 5* production of Lynne Nottage's Clyde's is currently at The Donmar Warehouse.

For her production of Blues for an Alabama Sky at The National Theatre, she won Best Director at the 2022 Evening Standard Theatre Awards and 2022 Critics Circle Theatre awards She is currently developing screen projects with Avalon Entertainment, Home Team Content, and Wychwood Media.

Lynette's directorial screen debut, My Name is Leon, a feature-length television adaptation of Kit de Waal's award-winning novel, aired on BBC2. The drama won Best TV Movie at the C21 Drama Awards, as well as Best Single Drama at the ITalkTelly Awards and Lynette was nominated for the emerging talent BAFTA.

Lynette directed the UK premiere of Lynn Nottage's Pulitzer Prize-winning play Sweat (Donmar Warehouse, Gielgud Theatre) for which she won Best Director at the inaugural Black British Theatre awards. Sweat also won the Evening Standard award for Best Play and was nominated for an Oliver award for Best New Play.

Her production of Richard II (Shakespeare's Globe) which she directed with Adjoa Andoh, marked the first ever company of women of colour in a Shakespeare play on a major UK stage.

She is co-founder of theatre and film production company Black Apron Entertainment who produced Passages: A Windrush Celebration with the Royal Court, a project she also curated.

As a writer, her credits include Look at Me (ITV), Hashtag Lightie (Arcola Theatre), Chicken Palace and Step (Theatre Royal Stratford East).

Her other directing credits include August in England by Lenny Henry (as co-director, Bush); House of Ife by Beru Tessema (Bush); an adaptation of Jackie Kay's Chiaroscuro (Bush); world premiere productions of Assata Taught Me (Gate), Function (National Youth Theatre), This Is (Arts Ed), Indenture (Dark Horse Festival), Naked (Vault Festival 2015), and a revival of This Wide Night (Albany). She was also co-director on Chicken Palace (Theatre Royal Stratford East).

Lynette was voted one of Marie Claire magazine's Future Shapers in 2019, alongside being named one of the Evening Standard's Most Influential Londoners.

Tosin Cole is a rising star whose work encompasses stage and screen. Tosin most recently wrapped production on Netflix's highly anticipated series, Supacell created by Rapman. He will soon start production on Girl from the North Country, opposite Chloe Bailey and Olivia Colman, and will next be seen as Tyronie Downie in Bob Marley: One Love opposite Kingsley Ben Adir. Recent film projects include Warner Bros. feature House Party, a reimagining of the cult 1990's classic. He also took on the seminal role of Medger Evers in Chinoye Chukwu's acclaimed drama, Till, which starred Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, whose pursuit of justice for her son triggered the Civil Rights Movement. Other notable work includes, 61st Street from BAFTA Award winning screenwriter Peter Moffat; Debbie Tucker Green's screen adaptation of her hugely successful stage play, ear for eye, which premiered at the BFI Festival; Doctor Who; The Sourvenir; Star Wars: The Force Awakens. His theatre credits include, They Drink It In The Congo (Almeida) and STOP (Trafalgar Studios).

Heather Agyepong's theatre credits include School Girls; Or, The African Mean Girls Play (Lyric Hammersmith), Celebrated Virgins (Theatr Clwyd), The Body Remembers (Battersea Arts Centre), Noughts & Crosses (UK tour), Girls (Soho Theatre), So Many Reasons, Best Friends, (Ovalhouse Theatre), Hatch (Hackney Showrooms), Jagged Edge (Acrylick) and Still Barred (Initiative.dkf).  On television, her credits include The Power (Amazon), This is Going to Hurt and Enterprice (BBC) and on film she has appeared in Joy and Sylvia.

 Heather is also an award-winning visual artist with her photography focusing on mental health and wellbeing, invisibility, the diaspora and the archive. Her work is currently on display at the National Portrait Gallery as part of the Taylor Wessing Photo Portrait Prize.

This production is generously supported by Charles Holloway, and is part of our artist development programme, Staged by Jerwood. Staged by Jerwood is supported by the Jerwood Developing Artists Fund.

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