Afterglow - Southwark Playhouse

"Recommended age 16+. This show contains strong language and nudity."

Boom. Booked!

Southwark Playhouse artistic director:

Boom. Booked!

Was in the capacity audience for the first preview last night of this modern-day moral tale. A somewhat slow start (though pleasing on the eye), but once it got into its stride the time just flew. Strong performances from the three actors and some challenging scenes. While there were a few flashes of humour, it felt that there was more laughter to be mined from the script, and no doubt this will come when the performers settle in. Also a few other niggles one can expect in an early preview. The scene changes which were carried out by the cast themselves were innovative - at times perhaps a bit clunky but will no doubt get slicker through the run. And the nudity - it seemed very honest and on the whole quite integral to the story. All in all a very good night out, much appreciated by the extended applause at the end. 85 minutes no interval.

Acting and direction are fine, but the writing is abysmal. It even works when it stays on the sexy comedy aspects, but when it tries to take a dramatic turn it sinks into nothingness. It's full of contradictions and cliches. It reminds me a lot of Coming Clean, but without Elyot's intelligence, wit and skills. And what's even worse is that it reinforces without critiquing some hideous aspects of the gay community, like the worshipping of youth and fitness. Not every queer play needs to have the intellectual breadth or ambition of Angels in America, nor should be a punch in the stomach like Bent, but Afterglow is really a failure.

A very enjoyable 90 mins for me!

Strong performances by all. Agree with above, not all gay theatre needs to be as thought provoking as Angels or The Inheritance. Just sit back and enjoy your self esteem being crushed by the pretty men

At first when I saw the bed I was like, oh no! another fringe gay play set around a bed !!

I just went to the Q&A with the writer (and NY director). He's actually in a happy, polygamous marriage!

An almost exclusively male audience enjoying three very good looking guys taking off their clothes and performing raunchy scenes. What more could you want?

I'm sure it's better value than a night in a strip club and the models are less jaded.

In all seriousness, I was there last night, which also turned out to have an interesting Q&A after the show.

If you do enjoy male nudity, the front row in the side blocks has the closest view of the action. There are two great shower scenes (they get through a lot of towels).

If you don't enjoy male nudity, you'll be pleased to know it's all over in the first 20 minutes and then this becomes a serious play.

It's not a play that will set the world alight, but there's enough there to keep your interest and it's in one act, so you can get home early. It's also light on comedy (probably worked better for the US sense of humour). And the actors all do a great job under the circumstances (one did seem to be having trouble avoiding grinning during an emotional scene, but that's maybe just how he plays it).

The Q&A afterwards featured the writer and the three actors (all fully clothed). The writer (who had the best hair in the building) mentioned that he has a Google Alert and reads everything, so he's probably seeing this. He also said that he loves the really negative and really positive comments - much better than people being indifferent.

As esteveyb mentioned, he is in a polygamous relationship, with his husband in the audience. He discussed his inspirations and the autobiographical journey in detail. It turns out that the play has deep meaning and is multi-leveled. I hadn't picked up on all of this, so his interpretation was interesting.

The actors, who came across as the much more reserved and well-spoken type when fully dressed, were pretty quiet through all of this. I would be interested to see if they'd picked up on the same interpretation. They did talk about the rehearsal process (conducted with the respect the "me too" movement) and what they thought about getting nude (two found it liberating with one of these saying starting off the play nude meant it was the least nervous he'd ever been in a role, the other had taken it on to push him out of his comfort zone - money was also mentioned as a motivating factor for taking the role).

The UK production was staged very differently to the US. The US version apparently had people watching on two sides and lots of mirrors, making watching the audience really interesting. The writer mentioned that several couples had contacted him to say they'd split up after seeing the play, so he felt it had successfully served its purpose. On Wednesday night, a couple left mid way through and argued in the foyer (made more entertaining with them trying to exit from the wrong side of the stage while the play was still going on).

So, as I'm sure the lovely S. Asher Gelman is reading this, I will avoid indifference and say I did enjoy this, particularly the Q&A. I must admit I found Jesse Fox very easy on the eye and say the online pictures of the cast don't do them justice. And, I look forward to watching him other plays, but please spread out the nudity so that we've got something to look forward to all the way through!

Although not a great play it was, for me, very enjoyable and much better than many of the comments on here (and reviews) suggested. Three very decorous young men gave strong performances and also nifty scene changes. The production was very inventive. Who would have thought that when SP first moved to this former car shop they would be able to consistently use the space so imaginatively - I do hope when they move to more swanky premises they maintain their flair.

Caught the play tonight.

Remembered the comments from here weren't glowing so went in with neutral expectations, I enjoyed it! While it was shocking that the nudity starts straight away, I was glad that is didn't last consistently throughout the play (I'm not a prude but being in such close proximity I almost felt rude and intruding..!!)

Is it The Inheritance? Angels in America? no. but there are plenty of standard hetero-romance plays so im glad that we have made progress to have a sub standard homo-romance play! There were some monologues that really touched me, and some where the wring felt a little juvenile (I did a little google and on Broadway World they said it was originally 2hr 15min with an interval so clearly they've done some cuts since the off broadway run).

While I can't deny it was nice to see three gorgeously attractive men, what does it say about our community that we couldn't have a little more diversity and not bow to the stereotype standard of gays being 5'11, ripped but not too much, and white? (Im probably reading far too much into it..!)

Solid three stars, catch it if you can, I love the Southwark Playhouse and water on stage always impresses me so to have our little fringe venue have a fully working shower is cool!

When it first played off-broadway, it was 2 acts with an interval. I saw it that way. Eventually in the run, they removed the interval and condensed it. I'm not sure why.