Meet us where we are
Writer Benedict Lombe on her West End debut
When I was dreaming up Shifters, I had one of the most enjoyable research periods of my career so far: rediscovering my favourite love stories. I’m being paid to do what I’ve done for free for years? Sweet. Off I went to get all up in my feels – revisiting nostalgic tales of love lost and found with a clinical eye.
“A hip When Harry Met Sally!”
This was an early fun discovery on my quest: an actual(!) real(!) life(!) quote plastered on the poster of the classic and widely underrated 1997 romantic film Love Jones. Reader, it is nothing like When Harry Met Sally. Huh, I thought. Feels like we need to unpack this.
A theme emerges. The rare times that two unambiguously Black romantic leads are afforded entry into the romance genre, there’s been an interesting trend of likening this work to what is accepted as the ‘norm’ – (often meaning work by white writers with straight white leads) and occasionally putting the words ‘hip’ and ‘urban’ in front of it. If not always explicitly, it’s implicit in how the work is talked about. There’s an interesting media trend of ‘othering’ Black work in the ironic pursuit of ‘relatability’ – instead of allowing it to be exactly the thing that it is, and trusting that will be enough to resonate with an audience. Trusting that a love story that both celebrates facets of our rich cultures and offers a nuanced depiction of human beings and relationships can – will – and does have universal appeal.
This is one of the many reasons we talk so much of ‘shifting the canon’ with Shifters. It’s not just about making fun puns (it is only occasionally about making fun puns). It’s about recognising we need a rethinking, a reordering, a redefining of the ‘norm.’ We need to blow it up. Make space. Ask questions. Who gets to write love stories? Who gets to be viewed – and imagined – as a romantic lead? Who gets to execute the vision with tenderness, precision, intention? Whose cultures and histories get to be showcased, talked about, and widely celebrated?
Our romantic leads, Des and Dre, are of British Congolese and British Nigerian heritage. They are dark-skinned. They wear their natural afros. They celebrate the music and food of their respective cultures. They are intelligent. And playful. And flawed. And wounded. And infuriating. And human. And so very lovable – if only they knew. They are characters existing in a world that is both grounded in cultural specificity and simultaneously transcends that.
When people think of “the norm” in this genre, I want them to also start imagining characters like Des and Dre. I want them to imagine actors that look like the stunning Heather Ageypong and Tosin Cole. I want them to feel the careful, detailed, tender work of directors like Lynette Linton connecting with their souls. I want them – meaning everyone – to see us – and in seeing us, see themselves.
I want them to meet us where we are.
And right now, where we are is in the West End.
Come through.
Shifters opens on 12 August until 12 October:
https://shifterstheplay.co.uk/
