Melbourne Reviews

Afterglow first opened at The Davenport Theatre in New York in 2017, a UK premiere at London’s Southwark Playhouse followed in 2019 and now, seven years later and prior to a Sydney season, S. Asher Gelman’s ‘exploration of desire, honesty, and connection’ has its Australian premier at  Chapel off Chapel as part of Melbourne’s 2026 Midsumma Festival.

Lighting Designer Jamie Roderick sharply optimises Ann Beyerdorfer’s versatile, striking and innovative set, Costume Designer Lauren Peters scored a relatively easy gig and an up-tempo soundtrack provides great momentum for an extremely hardworking cast who deserve incredible recognition for their deeply vulnerable physical and emotional performances. Unfortunately, despite their strength on stage, the material these actors are grappling with just doesn’t hold up and nor does the cringeworthy unnecessarily salacious pre-show announcement that does little to set a respectful tone for the performers or encourage an audience to approach this work seriously.

Affluent New York couple Josh and Alex meet Darius and as is so often the case with any good threesome, two out of the three ménage to take things a little further than perhaps they should and the subsequent fallout, predictably, means that no one emerges from any of it feeling anything other than sad and sticky.

Minus the depth, wit and insight of Mike Bartlett’s Cock, or the soaring soul heartbreak of Harvey Fierstein’s, Torch Song Trilogy, Afterglow’s dialogue feels like a direct lift from a personal development book and couples counselling. Despite a few moments of genuine laughter, there's very little here that any gay man with a smart phone and a Kylie album has not heard about, talked about or done, and for that reason it's difficult not to look cynically upon this work as feeding into and off stereotypical depictions of gay men and gay culture.

Afterglow will absolutely appeal and given its success, for many, it clearly has, but with a darkening social and political environment and the unfortunate spectre of increasing acronym infighting, sharing LGBTQI+ stories that address more than our physical behaviour will play a crucial role in staving off a genuine rainbow colour run. In this current climate, however earnest and inarguably lovely it is to look at, the pedestrian sexual indulgence and relationship traumas of New York 'A' gays penned 9 years ago doesn't feel particularly urgent.

With some incredibly strong visual marketing and impressive star billing, there’s little doubt the production will deliver at the box office and given that graphic intimacy between men has now gone mainstream, for further success, the show's PR team could perhaps consider tapping the PhD worthy oddness of the largely female fan base of “Heated Rivalry.”

Bringing something to the stage is an epic undertaking and achievement for all involved and one that should, absolutely be celebrated. No reviewer who genuinely cares about theatre relishes being less than upbeat about actors, writers, directors, designers and stage crew being in work but sometimes, the destination is unfortunately the least impressive part of that monumental journey.