Review by: Paul Towers, 2/7/19
Afterglow by S Asher Gelman
An Adam Roebuck, Aaron Quintana and Justin Coffman presentation
directed by Tom O’Brien
Southwark Playhouse, London 5 June to 20 July 2019
“a cautionary tale of an open relationship”
Dealing with nudity in a play is a difficult tightrope to
tread. Timing it wrong and it becomes much more important than the story it is
trying to tell. Afterglow solves this dilemma by starting this production naked
from the start. It gets any audience embarrassment out of the way immediately.
Afterglow is a cautionary tale of how an open relationship
can quickly turn sour. The fact that it is about a gay couple is fairly
inconsequential although staging it with a straight couple would derail the narrative
and it would end up just looking exploitative.
Josh (Sean Hart) and Alex (Danny Mahoney) are in a long
standing relationship. They love each other deeply and are awaiting the birth of
their surrogate child. All seems perfect except that Josh has a much higher sex
drive than Alex. So, to spice up their bedroom adventures, they invite cute and
younger Darius (Jesse Fox) into their lives. Inevitably love gets in the way
and Josh and Darius fall for each other and everybody ultimately loses out.
A clever set moves around to show various bedrooms, a
massage parlour, a shower room (yes they shower onstage) and even a rooftop
terrace.
This play is not for the faint hearted with lots of nudity,
plenty of simulated sex and a fair sprinkling of bad language. However, I would
recommend it to anyone thinking of taking the step of moving a threesome from
fantasy to real life.
Afterglow is on at the intimate space at Southwark Playhouse
until 20th July 2019
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