After finishing university, Lombe co-founded The Rat’s Nest Theatre Company with her friend Charlotte Rogers with the help of a grant from their university. a play about the struggles of women in the DRC. The piece was performed at the
Edinburgh Fringe in August 2013, She has also been an attachment writer at the
National Theatre and has been part of the Emerging Writers' Group at the
Bush Theatre, where both of her major plays,
Lava and
Shifters, were premiered.
Lava (2021) Lava, a one-woman play starring
Ronkẹ Adékoluẹjo and directed by Anthony Simpson-Pike, opened at the Bush in 2021. It went on to win the 2022
Susan Smith Blackburn Prize - the oldest and largest prize honouring women+ playwrights writing for English-speaking theatre. Lombe thus became one of the first playwrights to win the prize for a debut play. Lava also won prizes at the
Black British Theatre Awards and the 2022
Offies, and it was nominated for the
Alfred Fagon Award for Best New Play of the Year.
Shifters (2024) Lombe's next play
Shifters, a two-hander romance starring
Tosin Cole and
Heather Agyepong, directed by
Lynette Linton, opened in 2024 to widespread acclaim from UK theatre press.
Shifters transferred to the
Duke of York's Theatre in the
West End from 12 August to 12 October 2024. Shifters was nominated for Best New Play for the 2025
Olivier Awards (making Lombe the first Black British woman to achieve this nomination).
Artistry Among Lombe's writing influences are
Lynn Nottage,
debbie tucker green and
Paula Vogel. == Awards and nominations ==