Shifters review: Forget colourblind casting this is Black theatre for everyone – A triumph

In 1996, the distinguished black US playwright August Wilson wrote: “We do not need colourblind casting. We need some theatres to develop our playwrights.”

In the intervening decades, black playwrights have responded to Wilson’s cri de coeur and produced plays with black characters whose voices ring with authenticity and humanity. Benedict Lombe’s latest work is such a play.

A love story between two people who can’t quite acknowledge their feelings for each other, it resonates with an empathy that is racially specific, yet easily understood by anyone with a pulse. Dre (Tosin Cole), who is of Nigerian extraction, and Des (Heather Agyepong)of Congolese, meet as teenagers in England and form a close bond.

Caught up in the mystery dance of romantic attraction, neither can bring themselves at first to acknowledge their true feelings for the usual reasons: fear of rejection, fear of offense, fear of spoiling a friendship.

After a brief liaison, they separate and meet up again eight years later at the funeral of Dre’s granny, which is where the play begins.

Having accumulated relationship baggage in the interim, they unravel the past in fits and starts, each probing the other to discover if their feelings have changed and, if not, how to proceed.

Directed by Lynette Linton on a traverse stage, with lights like electric stalactites hanging overhead and music reflecting their different cultural roots, there is nothing to distract from the performers whose chemistry is utterly engaging and credible.

Cole catches Dre’s youthful hesitancy beautifully while Agyepong makes Des smart and funny, a little quicker off the mark than Dre. The late August Wilson must be smiling, wherever he is.