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Afterglow

Southwark Playhouse

Reviewed – 11th June 2019

★★★½

“shortcomings are largely made up for by three exceptional performances from the cast”

S. Asher Gelman notes that polyamory is a subject that’s seldom broached in art, and he’s not wrong. Luckily, his play Afterglow is here to remedy that, following a successful Off-Broadway run in 2017 and 2018, which bravely gives a voice and a platform to an often ignored or stigmatised type of relationship.

Centred around husbands Josh (Sean Hart) and Alex (Danny Mahoney), Afterglow explores the impact that Darius (Jesse Fox) has on their open marriage when their friends-with-benefits arrangement starts to develop into something much heavier with Josh, leaving Alex feeling excluded. The play’s frank attitude towards sex (it opens with a threesome and features a significant amount of full-frontal nudity) allows for a poignant and thought-provoking interrogation of love, intimacy, jealousy, and trust in non-traditional relationships.

Although Gelman’s script doesn’t always feel like it’s taking these themes are far as it could, however, it is well-paced and sporting a heft of relatable and quirky dialogue (for example, a running gag where Josh and Alex refer to their forthcoming surrogate child by the fruit that the foetus is currently the size of). The mechanics of the writing can be a little too obvious, as one character will contrive a reason to leave the stage just so that the other two can remain alone; yet it also never feels like Gelman pulls each thread enough to facilitate a truly satisfying climax. These shortcomings are largely made up for by three exceptional performances from the cast though, as the detail and nuance that their portrayals bring exacerbate the core themes in multifaceted ways. Hart and Mahoney deliver a beautiful domestic intimacy in their scenes together, with Hart in particular embodying Josh with a hugely endearing playfulness – one moment in which Josh mockingly hides from Alex under the pillows of a couch is utterly delightful. Tom O’Brien’s direction utilises instances such as these to excellent effect in fulling fleshing out these characters’ lives.

Libby Todd’s set design is immensely detailed – to the extent that it even features a functioning shower – with just three tables being boundlessly multi-purposed and garnished with a whole deluge of props. If anything, it’s too detailed though, as scene changes felt extraordinarily long with all the table-rearranging and set-dressing that had to take place. This was mired further by the fact that – due to the aforementioned nudity – these transitions also featured the actors having to get dressed and undressed. There was a noted effort to make these scene changes character driven, but they ultimately just felt fiddly and arduous, and subsequently killed the pace of the show.

Overall, Afterglow is a window into a lifestyle that is sorely under-represented and on that basis alone feels vital – it’s just a blessing that the play is also searingly characterful and ruminative too.

Reviewed by Tom Francis

Photography by Darren Bell

Afterglow

Southwark Playhouse until 20th July

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Seussical The Musical | ★★★★ | November 2018

The Funeral Director | ★★★★★ | November 2018

The Night Before Christmas | ★★★ | November 2018

Aspects of Love | ★★★★ | January 2019

All In A Row | ★★ | February 2019

Billy Bishop Goes To War | ★★★ | March 2019

The Rubenstein Kiss | ★★★★★ | March 2019

Other People’s Money | ★★★ | April 2019

Oneness | ★★★ | May 2019

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button | ★★★★★ | May 2019

Click here to see more of our latest reviews on thespyinthestalls.com

★★★

“conceptually fascinating, and with further development will hopefully find the formula that unveils its potential”

As part of the Pleasance Theatre’s Science Fiction Festival, Horatio Productions’ ReGen sports an impressive foundation, having been developed with the assistance of actual scientists from the Centre for Stem Cells and Regenerative Medicine of King’s College London. The collaboration of art and science is an ambitious one, and thankfully one that mostly pays off.

Set in a future in which healthcare has been monopolised by the antagonistic Paragon, whose treatments are designed to keep you spending more and more money, Dr Amanda Stuart (Mia Foo) is something of a black market doctor, handing out free treatment to those in need, and who are able to find her well-hidden clinic. That is, until celebrity chef Angel Belmonte (Juan Echenique who also penned the script) barges in, and his need for a cure inadvertently paves the way for a discovery that could revolutionise – as you may have guessed from the speciality of the scientists involved – stem cells and regenerative medicine. The play pitches itself in this setup as an exploration of public versus private healthcare, but as it develops this thread falls to the wayside somewhat, instead focusing on the dynamic between the two characters – which turns out to be a largely very enjoyable dynamic.

Echenique’s script is well-paced, contains a wealth of snappy dialogue, and manages to condense the science into a sense that is easily digestible to the less scientifically adept in the audience (like myself). One section in the latter half centred around rats is particularly brilliant, managing to collide the fearsome potential of the revolutionary treatment with the personal frictions of the characters in a way that ratchets up the tension and comedy to great effect. However, the excellence of this scene does draw attention to other scenes that don’t quite meet this standard, instead feeling quite filmic as they end before they get the chance to truly make an impact. This is especially noticeable as there are some needlessly long transitions as the actors are made to fully rearrange the set made up of tables and stools every time the setting changes, which kills the energy and momentum of the prior action.

Foo and Echenique’s performances are individually engrossing but occasionally lack the cohesion of two actors really listening and responding to each other, and leaves you wishing Fumi Gomez’s direction had spent more attention on fleshing out the conflicts and relationships in the script, instead of focusing on how many configurations of tables and stools can be implemented. ReGen, however, is conceptually fascinating, and with further development will hopefully find the formula that unveils its potential.

Reviewed by Tom Francis

Southwark Playhouse

Reviewed – 11th June 2019

★★★½

“shortcomings are largely made up for by three exceptional performances from the cast”

Overall, Afterglow is a window into a lifestyle that is sorely under-represented and on that basis alone feels vital – it’s just a blessing that the play is also searingly characterful and ruminative too.

Reviewed by Tom Francis

Photography by Darren Bell

Afterglow

Southwark Playhouse until 20th July

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue:

Pleasance Theatre

Reviewed – 27th May 2019

★★★

“conceptually fascinating, and with further development will hopefully find the formula that unveils its potential”

Reviewed by Tom Francis

ReGen

Pleasance Theatre until 1st June as part of their Science Fiction Theatre Festival

Last ten shows reviewed at this venue: