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Shifters Tickets

An intoxicating show about the complexities of relationships.

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Running until 12 October 2024

Run time 1 hour 40 minutes

Includes interval

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Show Copy DO YOU BELIEVE IN DESTINY? “the perfect bittersweet rom-com” **** Evening Standard “smouldering and soulful” **** Time Out "laugh out loud funny and tears to the eyes moving” **** The Times

Written by Benedict Lombe (Lava, winner of the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for Playwriting), directed by Evening Standard Theatre Award-winner Lynette Linton (Blues for an Alabama Sky, August in England) and starring the “irresistible” (London Theatre) Heather Agyepong (School Girls; or, The African Mean Girls Play, Lyric Hammersmith) and the “tremendous” (The Observer) Tosin Cole (Supacell, BBC’s Doctor Who). Shifters is a beautifully intoxicating and relatable reminder of the enduring power of memory and young love. A universal story, full of heart, this love story is “easy itself to fall in love with” (The Times).

Dre and Des. Young. Gifted. Black. He stayed. She left.

Years later, Des and Dre come crashing back into each other’s lives, carrying new secrets and old scars. With the clock counting down until Des has to leave again, memories of their teen years collide with their present and they’re forced to question if destiny has brought them back together for a reason.

Running at the Duke of York’s Theatre from 12th August – 12th October for a strictly limited 9-week run, book your tickets now and get ready to fall for this “tender, cosmic and cleverly unpredictable love story that will leave you wishing for a sequel” (The Stage). Shifters has a running time of 100 minutes with no interval.

Running time

1 hour 40 minutes

Performance dates

12 August - 12 October 2024

Special notes

The doors to the venue will open 90 minutes before the show. Please ensure you arrive at the venue 30 minutes before the time shown on your ticket. If you arrive after the performance has started we cannot guarantee admission into the show.

Venue Information

Duke of Yorks Theatre
St Martin's LaneLondonWC2N 4BG

Group Pricing

Special pricing for groups of 10 or moreCheck our group prices and save!

Recent Reviews

4.8
43 reviews

Latest Shifters News

What's closing in London theatres this month (October 2024)

News / Features

What's closing in London theatres this month (October 2024)

We’ve officially entered spooky season, but forget the cobwebs and creatures, every theatre kid knows that there’s nothing scarier than missing out on a hot new show! FOMO can’t be battled with or bested by cloves of garlic, wooden stakes or silver bullets. The only way to defeat the fear of missing out is not missing out (simple really). So make sure you catch these productions in the West End before they leave us for the other side (read: UK tours and well earned rests).

Shifters (12 October)

This ‘gorgeous piece of storytelling’ (The Stage) has been wowing theatregoers throughout its West End run. Debuting at the Bush Theatre to critical acclaim, this terrific transfer’s fluid, dreamlike structure has been transporting audiences to a world slightly away from our own. A world richer, tender, more intimate, and deeply moving.

Weaving personal and political narratives seamlessly, and blending elements of science fiction and drama, Shifters follows a couple who crash back into eachothers lives after eight years apart. 

An unapologetic exploration of race, power, and belonging. Dre and Des are young, gifted and Black. They’ve only just been reunited but the clock is already counting down until Des must leave again. Memories of their teen years collide with their present and they’re forced to question if destiny has brought them back together for a reason, it’s “the perfect bittersweet rom-com” (Evening Standard) 

The Real Thing (26 October)

‘Tom Stoppard's gem still shines’ (The Guardian) at the Old Vic! The Tony Award-winning play takes a dark and honest look at human relationships and the nature of fidelity and love, balancing brilliance with a beating heart. 

Henry, a successful playwright, has a complicated relationship with two actresses: one is his wife, Charlotte, and the other is his lover, Annie. Diving through layers of play and performance, reality and deceit, the characters wrestle with the blurred lines between reality and fiction. 

Stoppard's kaleidoscopic comedy is made even more intriguing by the semi-autobiographical elements. There are a number of parallels between Stoppard and his main character: both are middle-aged playwrights known for their exact use of language; both express doubts about Marxism and the politics of the left, and both undertake work outside the theatre to keep up their comfortable lifestyles and pay alimony to their ex-wives. Stoppard even went out with Felicity Kendal, the actress who played Annie (Max, the main character's wife) in the West End premiere of the show over 40 years ago! 

25 Sep, 2024 | By Sian McBride

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