‘We needed this’: UK audiences thirsty for black British love stories, says playwright

Benedict Lombe: ‘I’m hoping this moment is an opportunity to change the idea of who gets to tell these stories on these stages.’ Photograph: Diana Patient

Theatre audiences are “thirsty” for romance stories told from a black perspective, according to a playwright who is only the third black British woman to have a production put on in the West End, the heartland of UK commercial theatre.

Benedict Lombe’s play Shifters is transferring to the West End this summer. She said she believes the UK is entering a boom in black romance literature and plays led by authors such as Frances Mensah Williams, Dorothy Koomson and Bolu Babalola, who have had success writing romance stories that centre on black couples.