Artistically embarrassing but a hit: Shifters, at Duke of York’s Theatre, reviewed

Shifters has transferred to the West End from the Bush Theatre. It opens at a granny’s funeral attended by the grief-stricken Dre, aged 32. Dre was raised by his ‘Nana’ as he calls her – rhyming it with ‘spanner’ – and he weeps when he realises that his mother has failed to show up. A beautiful young woman arrives unexpectedly. This is Dre’s teenage sweetheart and they exchange gossip over a glass of whisky while rummaging through Nana’s belongings.

The lovebirds met at school where they studied philosophy and outshone all their rivals in the class. After a short relationship they drifted apart during their twenties and now, in their early thirties, they’re ready to settle down. Will they get married? Well, let’s think. The girl’s name is Destiny so it seems possible. Both characters break the fourth wall and share confidences with the audience about their remarkable lives.

At the age of 15, Destiny was appalled by boys who treated her as ‘a grown woman’ and she withdrew into her shell and began to paint. Success arrived overnight and she became an artist of global renown whose masterpieces were exhibited in Prague, Venice and New York. Just like that. She didn’t even go to art college, apparently. Dre’s ascent was nearly as swift. After leaving school he took low-paid jobs in kitchens while working towards a diploma in business studies. He then opened a brand new fusion restaurant and the enterprise succeeded instantly. Not a single blip along the way, it seems.

Neither of them collected any debt, either. Nor were they troubled by school bullies, racist police, drug dealers, mental-health disorders or any of the woes that afflict so many characters in modern plays. Lucky them. But dramatically they’re hard to engage with because they lack internal struggles and face no serious impediments to their marriage.