The tender sound of a kiss on stage triggers a cacophony of gasps, cheers and angry whispers in the audience. Gear leveran epic romantic comedy brought to the West End by new writers Bush Theatre. The thrill of Benedict Lombe’s all-or-nothing love story lies not only in its inventive, emotionally astute script, but in the frenzied reactions of the audience, who are on the edge of their seats at every twist and turn.
It centers on a couple who clash from the moment they first meet as teenagers in a rural school. Dre (Tosin Cole) wants Des (Heather Agyepong) to join the school’s debate team, and of course she responds by showing off her argumentative skills in impressive fashion. She skilfully analyzes his nice demeanor and figures out his true motives – he wants to win a debate competition and use the prize money to visit his estranged mother in Nigeria.
Over a decade later, they meet again at the funeral of Dre’s beloved grandmother. Surprisingly, this time he’s the cool and composed one, as Des, who is emotional, finds that the buffet brings back memories by the plateful: she experiences a Proustian moment as she eats beignets that taste just like her grandmother’s long ago. Now that she’s moved out of home, food is a way for her to rediscover parts of her heritage she’d half-forgotten, flavors as complex as her late mother’s Congolese specialty ngai ngai.
Lombe’s play is full of meditations on memory. We are told that first love leaves particularly deep marks on our brains, and that events from our past are distorted to fit the stories we tell ourselves in the present. These neuroscientific elements are reflected both in Alex Berry’s synapse-like neon-lit set and in the structure of the play, which jumps restlessly between past and present, blurring them together as it builds to a fascinatingly ambiguous ending.
How Nick Payne’s 2012 hit for two in the West End Constellations, Gear lever is a love story woven with big themes—and at times the meditations on fate, memory and trauma risk overwhelming them. But it also has a real, welcome lightness. Lombe’s dialogue beautifully captures the way these lovers stumble over their own words. Dre, exploring his identity as a black boy in a predominantly white school, punctuates an eloquent speech with a blunt “do you hear me,” then becomes embarrassed by his own awkwardness. In the present, Des raves about the glass and steel curves of a converted bus stop—”that’s sexy”—then lets her awkwardness fade into a dance that’s both silly and flirtatious.
Cole and Agyepong have undeniable chemistry in these lead roles, but there’s always something deeper simmering underneath too – Cole reveals layer after layer of pain beneath his permanent smile, while Agyepong lets her vulnerability flash before building her walls back up, higher than before. And the ebb and flow of their relationship is given room to breathe by Lynette Linton’s deft direction, which encourages them to pause and feel the audience gasp and cheer.
Linton is artistic director of the Bush Theatre in west London, which also staged Tyrell Williams’ debut play Red Square this year – adding to the growing number of successful West End plays by black authors. Gear lever is a brilliant addition to that canon and to a theatrical landscape that is finding new audiences who love it, engage with it and bring it to life.
“Shifters” runs at the Duke of York’s Theatre until October 12; shifterstheplay.com
