– It’s meaty.
The week before the premiere of “Shifters” at the Riksteatern is intense. It’s John Njie’s first leading role on the Stockholm stage and the script is huge.
DN meets him on his only day off this week at a pizzeria in Årsta, where he usually reads scripts. Subtle jazz sounds from the speakers.
– I was approached for this project a long time ago and when I read the script in English I just felt like crap… I can’t really explain it. But it was so impressive, poetic and beautiful.
In the role of Dre, he plays a man with an African flair who is gregarious on the outside but struggles with feelings of abandonment on the inside. Des (Angelika Prick) stands against him. It’s a nostalgic love story about two people who meet when they’re sixteen years old and meet again when they’re twice their age.
He loves the role.
– It’s nice to be able to play a whole person, with flaws and good qualities, and not just comment on myself as black from someone else’s point of view.
That’s what happened He felt he was on stage to perform a specific function or highlight an issue, rather than to portray a complex character.
– It happens that you are asked to stand on stage and talk about how, as a black person, you feel inferior to a white person. I did that. And then you usually fulfill a function.
Benedict Lombe wrote the critically acclaimed 2023 play for the Bush Theater in London, which was performed in the West End the following year. She is the third black woman to have a play performed there and has made a name for herself by offering perspectives rarely seen on major stages.
– Except there are two black people in this love story. That in itself is new. I’ve never seen it in Sweden.
The biggest challenge was finding your own motivation in a role that was originally written for a different audience.
– It’s a British script with British humor and certain cultural references that have to be brought into a Swedish context.
At one point in the play it is revealed that Des has been engaged for a year with no date set for the wedding.
– It is quite common in Sweden and is not that noticeable. But based on the conversation with the director, I understood that it was a scandal in the British context.
– At the same time it is also a universal story about love, so that everything doesn’t fly over your head.
Last spring, Njie was seen in Alexander Salzberger’s “Papporna” at Dramaten. Last fall, he played Lucentio in Farnaz Arbabi’s reimagining of Shakespeare’s “Thus Chastises an Angry Pig.”
Accepting “Shifters” also means that he has to forego other tasks, but it was “100 percent worth it.”
The way to the theater stage in the capital has passed through several cities. John Njie trained at the Theater Academy in Luleå and completed an internship at Malmö City Theater before a one-year contract with Dramaten brought him to Stockholm.
He can’t choose between roles, but instead thinks carefully about which theater projects he agrees to and tries to follow what feels “right”. He doesn’t have a clear plan as to which roles he wants to take on and which he doesn’t.
– Now that I have had a taste of a role that is so diverse, and since I have played my last roles in dramas, I want to continue to pursue this kind of maximum performance.
At the time of writing, he is in the process of selling his furniture as he needs to vacate his used apartment before the end of the month.
After the premiere, his hometown of Gothenburg awaits him, where he will be part of the ensemble at the Gothenburg Stadsteater. In the fall he will appear in another Shakespeare play, “Trettondagsafton,” directed by Brit Ellen McDougall.
– I don’t have children, so where I am isn’t so important now. I just want to do things that feel stimulating and exciting.
John Njie
Born: 1995 in Majorna, Gothenburg.
Background: Graduated from the Theater Academy in Luleå in 2024. Starred as Ali in Så urholkas själen (Malmö Stadsteater, 2024). Appeared in “Papporna” on Dramaten (2025). He had his breakthrough in the role of Lucentio in “Så tuktas en argbigga” at Dramaten (2025).
Current: Plays the lead role of Dre in the play “Shifters”, which premieres on February 28th at the Riksteatern in Hallunda. The play was written by playwright Benedict Lombe and directed by Táiyé Oyebola in Sweden.
