Afterglow - Southwark Playhouse

I don’t think it’s common, but there are all kinds of financial reasons why it would make sense. It’s a relatively cheap show to put on (cast of three), proven niche audience, will save a theatre from being dark and will let more people know about the theatre. And then there are all the cross over marketing opportunities with the gay sauna across the road.

Says there's an all-new cast too, interestingly!

Interesting they’re changing the cast. Perhaps this is to encourage people to make a return visit (different naked guys).

A cynical view would be that this will include three guys fresh out of drama school, working for more financially advantageous terms.

They will have to restage it anyway (this is a traditional layout, the Southwark Playhouse had a narrow stage and audience on three sides).

Just seen that the cast for this was announced a couple of days ago. Stars Benjamin Aluwihare, Adi Chugh and Peter McPherson, with Kane Surry as understudy.

Thirsty people will be delighted to hear Waterloo East Theatre has revived this. I am off to the press night tonight. Even the production photos were so explicit I had to close my email at work.

Well, saw this today. Seats staggered so my view was reasonable enough - I saw plenty.

I am not sure the explicitness of the sex, the shower scenes, and the frequent on-stage changing of clothes actually added much to the story, to be honest. I mean, I appreciate handsome naked man-on-man action as much as the next woman, but it was oddly unerotic here. Maybe it was the sneaking suspicion that the cast’s nudity was being exploited to sell a rather lightweight piece of writing. Sex is not, after all, the crux of the problem in this story - at least not as written. It’s about the emotional complications that follow sex - hence the title.

Of course leaving out the nudity and the sex - hinting at rather than showing it - would leave the playwrite with more time to fill, and he might even be required to develop the characters a little.

Must have sold really well because it’s coming back for another run in January.

theoracle Sorry for any confusion, just revived the old thread so above comments are 4 years old. New run is at Southwark Playhouse Borough

southwarkplayhouse.co.uk/productions/afterglow/

No, because people go to see the play for the naked hunks, certainly not for the quality of the writing

Edit: if you mean racially diverse, I think the last cast wasn't all white. But if you mean physically diverse, no way

Cancelled due to technical difficulties tonight. Kudos to the team for trying to get it open after having to reset everything. The show managed to start around 8:15 but after 10mins had to stop again before being officially cancelled. I’ll probably not get to see this on this occasion which I’m sad about but was wondering has anyone else had issues recently with this production? It made me realise how important sound and lighting are to each show, even when there’s only 3 actors. Hope the show comes back again so I can finally see it

For once I was grateful for the fact that the Southwark Playhouse always runs very late. A tube journey from Camden to Elephant and Castle that Mr Google insisted was easily doable failed to take into account a 15-minute queue to enter Camden station, so we arrived for last Saturday's 15:00 matinée at 15:03 and still had four minutes to kill, or at least de-stress.

I'm not sure what to make of simulated sex with flaccid penises. Bad acting I suppose? In any case, the nudity felt entirely gratuitous and unnecessary. Naked bodies do nothing for me. I'd much rather see a man fully attired in something horny.

The problem with Afterglow is that, strip out the tittilation, and it's not much of a story. Open relationships don't always work out. But then, affairs also kill monogamous ones. So what?

The dialogue is nicely written and performed, but the piece is fairly inconsequential.

Three stars.

One act: 15:07-16:33