{"id":17250,"date":"2026-02-07T03:50:43","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:50:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/?p=17250"},"modified":"2026-02-07T03:50:44","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:50:44","slug":"observer-afterglow-review-by-elizabeth-semmel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/2026\/02\/07\/observer-afterglow-review-by-elizabeth-semmel\/","title":{"rendered":"OBSERVER: Afterglow review by Elizabeth Semmel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There are various facets to consider when contemplating Midnight Theatrical’s production of Afterglow.
The story, the staging, the acting, the music, the transitions, the costumes – or lack of, the provocations. This is definitely a play to remember.
All three members of this ensemble can act. Julian Curtis, Matthew Mitcham, Matthew Predny – although having slight glitches with the American accents as far as I could hear, for the most part played believable characters who showed genuine emotion.
This is a talented cast whose chemistry was clear, important in a show of this kind.
The transitions from various scenes were cleverly choreographed with fluid movement, the actors interacting with one another as they moved the set around.
The set had some stunning features, particularly the shower- worth seeing for this alone.
Its emergence was unexpected. It was simple yet effective, being complemented by beautiful lighting. For a one-act play there were too many set changes though they were executed well.
One can\u2019t review a show like this without asking the question of the necessity of nudity on stage.
It was no secret this show was about sex. It is a love story with the physical attraction at the centre, yet It is also a show about relationships where not every interaction has to be physical, sexual or naked.
I think for Afterglow less could have been more. The nudity at times was a distraction, leading to a lot of dressing\/ undressing. It made me wonder if these characters could have an interaction without being physical or could be physical without being naked, this for me made the play a bit \u2018two dimensional.\u2019
Written, directed, choreographed by the talented S. Asher Gelman, Afterglow does what it set out to do, compels the audience to think.
Whether that be thinking about relationships or how warm the water is there is a lot to contemplate after the show.
Performance Details: Until February 21
Venue: Chapel off Chapel
Bookings: chapeloffchapel.com.au\/show\/afterglow\/
Review by Elizabeth Semmel<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are various facets to consider when contemplating Midnight Theatrical’s production of Afterglow.The story, the staging, the acting, the music, the transitions, the costumes – or lack of, the provocations. This is definitely a play to remember.All three members of this ensemble can act. Julian Curtis, Matthew Mitcham, Matthew Predny – although having slight glitches…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1219,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_siteseo_robots_primary_cat":"none","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17250","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-observer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17250","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17250"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17250\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17255,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17250\/revisions\/17255"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17250"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17250"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dindi.com.au\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17250"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}