Making its Australian premiere, international hit play Afterglow reaps the benefits of a charming and talented local cast. 

An ideal fit for the annual Midsumma Festival, Afterglow is the brainchild of playwright S. Asher Gelman, who also serves as director and choreographer. Following a highly successful 18-month run Off-Broadway, Midnight Theatricals has taken the play to London and Los Angeles, and this is the production that is seen here.

As the play opens, shadow work shows the intimacy of a male couple with a third figure soon joining the pair; the curtain drops and the three men happily bask in the “afterglow.” Married couple Josh and Alex have brought younger guy Darius to their bed for the night, a habit the open couple enjoys practising. 

As Josh and Alex prepare for a more serious and settled phase of their lives with a baby to be born via a surrogate, Josh is attracted to the freedom and youth of Darius, stretching the boundaries of what Josh and his husband have agreed upon in their marriage. 

While Gelman’s concept for Afterglow could be viewed as simply reclaiming the time-honoured heterosexual trope of the love triangle and giving it a gay spin, there is richer substance to the play in that the pathos is generated from a distinctly gay male angle. The impact of nesting on sexual freedom is explored, along with the nature of commitment as well as the difficulty to meet partners when so many men are coupled. 

While the small talk in Gelman’s dialogue is occasionally clunky or simplistic, the more heated discussions and arguments are the heart of the play and these provide stimulating food for thought. Impressively, Gelman avoids the simplicity of a trite happy ending, allowing the drama wrought by the characters’ choices to unfurl to an affecting conclusion. 

The imported set design by Ann Beyersdorfer and lighting design of Jamie Roderick look impressively slick in the Chapel off Chapel space. Clear perspex flooring and rear panels create mirrored surfaces to reflect the action while a central fully operational shower allows both for passionate interactions and for the chance for the protagonists to wash that man right outa their hair. 

The play is performed acoustically against the backdrop of atmospheric music and effects from sound designer Alex Mackyol. Volume and diction are resoundingly clear, and American accents are uniformly excellent. Gelman occasionally eschews dialogue to convey intimate interactions through stylised choreographed moves, and scene changes are uniquely choreographed with the performers staying in character as they move furniture and props into place, 

For this Australian tour, costume design is by Lauren Peters, who provides a relaxed range of day wear that is easy to take on and off as required. With the three actors physically looking quite similar, Peters could have made more effort to differentiate and highlight the relative youth of Darius. Meanwhile, the matching clothing patterns of Josh and Alex successfully demonstrate their synergy as a couple. 

Gelman successfully collaborates with Australian intimacy director Chloe Dallimore to present full frontal nudity that is as comfortable as possible for both the actors and audience. Full credit to the three actors for working so naturally with the audience so close and for engaging with each other physically with such trust and freedom. The nudity brings extra believability to the bedroom scenes, avoiding the usual coy use of underwear and bed sheets to show confident sexual men in their element. 

Josh is played by famed Olympic diver Matthew Mitcham, an out and proud athlete long before the current focus on such matters in Heated Rivalry. Having built up an impressive set of theatre credits in recent years, Mitcham is a natural on the stage, and captures the central dilemma of Josh’s love for his husband and attraction to Darius with neatly underplayed flair. 

Julian Curtis plays Josh’s husband Alex, often seen as the necessary voice of reason. Curtis successfully balances the grounded and serious aspects of Alex with the character’s own sense of sexual expression. The audience readily sympathises with Alex, with Curtis readily giving the man a noble inner strength.

Matthew Predny brings out the playful, carefree personality of younger man Darius to solid effect. Predny enjoys strong chemistry with Mitcham, giving the audience conflicting emotions in regard to which pairing to support. There are no simple answers and this is very convincingly conveyed in the performances. 

Featuring a strong cast and terrific design, racy and thought-provoking play Afterglow is the ideal theatrical summer treat. 

Afterglow plays at Chapel off Chapel, Melbourne until 21 February 2026. For tickets, click here.

Afterglow plays at Eternity Playhouse, Sydney 26 February – 22 March 2026. For tickets, click here.

Photos: Cameron Grant, Parenthesy