Theatre Reviews

Afterglow
Southwark Playhouse
5th June to 20th July 2019

“Josh and Alex, a married couple in an open relationship, invite Darius to share their bed one night. When a new intimate connection begins to form, all three men must come head to head with one another’s notions of love, intimacy, and commitment.”

Review by Richard Lambert, 4 Stars

The high production values keep the play afloat on what would otherwise be a rather tedious, predictable and thin storyline. No surprises or twists and turns along the way. The characters are stifled and hampered by just being way too nice. It needs an evil queen, of any variety, some backstabbing, a plot of some sort. They’re all just way too comfortable in their life-styles, behaviour, wealth and social setting to be anything other than lovely and enviable. Where’s the real drama?

However, having said that, the production has a great sound score, even if it is way too loud.

The scene changes are often more interesting than the scenes.

The on-stage shower is impressive – requiring the stage to be mounted within a large paddling pool.

The costumes and design are interesting.

The cast are handsome and look lovely naked. 3 cis-gendered white gay males, 2 with designer stubble and the 3rd a little younger but clean shaven. The 2 husbands’ differences more pronounced in their abs than hair colour or looks. Clearly this helps the production and is most likely why it ran for so long in New York – the prudish Americans love a bit of nudity. So naughty! But of course so normal for an European audience.

It’s a show that will no doubt generate very good audience numbers as witnessed last night. A commercial success even if dramatically not quite there.

and here are some lovely photos (credit Darren Bell)