Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.For most of Benedict Lombe’s life, she has been consumed and fascinated by love stories. “But it was always very clear that people like me don’t exist in them,” she says. She is referring not only to her race but also her ethnic identity: “I’m Congolese and I don’t think I have ever seen a Congolese character in a story that wasn’t about some deep, deep suffering. It does something to you when you don’t get to see people with your history depicted as worthy of love.” So when the Bush Theatre in west London approached her with the offer of a commission, it was obvious to her that a love story is what she should write. She quotes James Baldwin: “The place in which I’ll fit will not exist until I make it.”Her play Shifters is the result. Starring Heather Agyepong from Amazon Prime’s The Power as Des and Supacell actor Tosin Cole as Dre, it portrays young lovers reunited several years after a dramatic break-up and is transferring to the West End after a sold-out run in the spring. It is Lombe’s second hit for the Bush: her debut play, Lava, about a young woman’s quest to renew her British passport, opened in the summer of 2021 and won the Susan Smith Blackburn prize for women writing for the English-speaking theatre the following year.Shifters takes inspiration from the stories of Lombe’s youth, both on American television (melodramas Dawson’s Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Gilmore Girls) and in the cinema. She had fun revisiting some of the more affecting titles she watched back then, including Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Before Sunset. She is also inspired by the intellect and musicality of playwright debbie tucker green’s work: “It encouraged me to find my own rhythm.”Though rooted in the cultural specificity of Black Britishness, the core of the play is love, which has resonated with audiences of all races. She wasn’t surprised, though: “Who hasn’t loved and been loved and if they haven’t been loved then who hasn’t felt rejection and heartbreak and confusion and giddiness? These are all things that transcend age and race and all those things.”Part of the action is set in a town near Crewe, a nod to Lombe’s northern roots. She lived in Wigan from the age of 12 until she left to study scriptwriting at Bournemouth University, but she was born in Kinshasa, to Congolese parents. They have always been supportive of her writing. “They moved to different places to better themselves and their children’s lives. And I think they did that classic African-parent thing of saying, ‘You can do anything and be anything.’ It’s one thing to hear that and another to grow up and realise you were seeing it throughout your whole life.”Centring the stories of young Black women means that Lombe is frequently asked if her work is autobiographical. She does sometimes take her lived experience as a starting point but the extent is rarely significant enough for her to claim she is telling her own story. She notes that the theory speaks to the racist stereotype that Black people are incapable of intellectual or artistic rigour. “I think that automatic assumption is something that happens with Black women’s work — it can only be good if it’s true. In Shifters there are so many things these characters go through that I might not have gone through. My work is very carefully researched.”Her research sits alongside an unconventional creative process. “This is going to sound wanky, but I write through feeling. I don’t start with characters, I don’t start with plot, I start with feeling — this is what I want a piece of work to feel like. With Shifters, I wanted it to feel dreamlike, and epic, and big, and swoon-worthy.” She is precise with the vision of her craft but never had any reservations handing over the reins to director Lynette Linton because their working styles complement each other. “We don’t agree, but in the best way. We’re on the same page, but perhaps in a different font.”One of the frequent observations about the central couple is that their relationship is toxic, which makes their love seem unbelievable. Lombe is not only aware of this dynamic but she says it is intentional. “I don’t know anybody who comes into any kind of interaction without baggage. Love is complicated, particularly young love — you see these characters from the ages of 16 to 32. And you know your 16-year-old self was a mess!“I also think there is sometimes a fear in how we portray Black women — she can’t be too unlikeable, she can’t be too assertive, because people call them aggressive. Because we recognise these tropes, we end up sometimes policing the versions of ourselves that we create. So I wanted to forget about that and just say — what is a real person like? And I think that it speaks to grounding this love story in reality.”In recent years there has been a notable increase in diversity in London’s West End; so far in 2024 there has been at least one Black creative-led show opening almost every month, and many have garnered critical acclaim. Asked if she thinks the change is here to stay, there is a thoughtful pause: “The jury’s still out on that for me, because I want to see more Black British women’s work.” Lombe joins just two other Black British women — Natasha Gordon and Yasmin Joseph — to have their work staged in the West End. “Usually Black work means Black British men. In the same breath that we celebrate the successes of Black men, let’s acknowledge the absence of Black women. I do think there is an erasure of Black women that is very rarely acknowledged — even by the Black men who have those platforms.”Is the prestige of a West End transfer still relevant in an industry that feels so relentlessly exclusionary? Lombe thinks artists risk losing themselves if they focus too much on the transfer as definitive proof that they have arrived at the pinnacle of their career. “If you’re always going, ‘Well, if it doesn’t transfer then it doesn’t mean anything,’ then why are you doing it? . . . What’s more interesting for me is how does this work get to live on and impact people?” It is a rejection of the idea of legacy as defined by any industry standard in favour of a more quietly radical endeavour — to get more stories about Black British women on more stages and screens.‘Shifters’ runs at Duke of York’s Theatre, London, August 12-October 12, shifterstheplay.co.ukFind out about our latest stories first — follow FTWeekend on Instagram and X, and subscribe to our podcast Life and Art wherever you listen
