The week in theatre: Shifters; The Human Body; Nachtland – review

Bush theatre; Donmar Warehouse; Young Vic, London
Benedict Lombe’s new play about two almost-lovers is alive and unpredictable; Keeley Hawes and Jack Davenport have a glimmering brief encounter; and a Hitler painting causes a family rift in Patrick Marber’s latest production

If I were running London theatre, I would put Lynette Linton in as artistic director of the Young Vic, from which Kwame Kwei-Armah has recently announced he is stepping down. Linton has made the Bush, which she has headed for five years, glow, while igniting terrific stagings at the National (Blues for an Alabama Sky) and Donmar (Clyde’s). She has hardly been hiding her light under a Bushel, but it is time to make another theatre quake.

Her production of Shifters brings together – fervently and precisely – writing, acting and design talent. It is only three years since Benedict Lombe erupted on to the stage of the Bush with her first play, Lava. This new play is still more gifted. Shifters is partly about the way memories stain the way we see the present. Yet every moment feels on the pulse and precarious; no reactions are predictable.