They're on the same page. It's just sex. It doesn't have to be complicated.
Anyway, it wouldn’t work. He hates kissing in the morning. She killed her guinea pigs. He doesn’t speak to his dad.
They’re totally different people.
It’s just sex.
“I’m just worried because I think what I’m being turned on by is the fact that you’re imagining a stable future with me, whereas what you’re being turned on by is the potential potency of your own sperm.”
A lyrical, charged, sharply observed and genuinely erotic two-hander, After Sex follows the trajectory of a couple, told almost entirely through post-coital scenes. It’s about how the sex we have can change us: a love-song to connection, and to people’s capacity for changing each other’s lives.
Thursday 25 July, 5-6pm – Pre Show Intimacy Director Q&A
Register here for a pre-show Q&A with Stella Moss (intimacy director on After Sex) and Izzy Parriss (director and producer of After Sex) in Studio 2. This is a free event and attendees will be sent a discount code to buy tickets for that evening’s performance of After Sex. The Q&A will cover the work of an Intimacy Director(/Coordinator), paths into the industry and collaboration with directors and actors. There will be lots of opportunities for audience questions. Spaces for the Q&A are limited to 35 so we will operate it on a first come, first served basis. You will receive an email letting you know if you have been allocated a place on the guest list for the Q&A.
Thursday 25 July – Post Show Panel and Q&A with Positive East
Join Positive East on July 25th for a thought-provoking post-show panel and Q&A that explores the themes of the play and ignites a conversation about sexual health for everyone. Euriza Mata (Testing and Prevention Coordinator) and Pamela Menzies-Banton (Women for Women Project Coordinator) will join Dr. Renee West for a panel discussion. Together, they’ll explore the importance of clear communication and consent, and delve into Positive East‘s approach to ensuring equitable access to PrEP and promoting good sexual health for all. Don’t miss this powerful conversation on sexual health from London’s leading HIV charity, Positive East.
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Running time
65 minutes -
Age guidance
14+ -
Content warnings
"An innovative, hilarious and heart wrenching production"– Green Room Reviews
"It's not 'just sex' it's an insight into a human connection in it's purest, most intimate form"– Rated Reviewed
"Azan Ahmed and Antonia Salib are simply magnetic"– Broadway World
"Intimate and endearing"– Rated Reviewed
The Company
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Azan Ahmed
HIM
Azan Ahmed
HIM
Azan stars as series regular Eddie Suleman in the hugely popular ITV series Van Der Valk alongside Marc Warren and most recently was seen in a guest role in ITVX’s new comedy Count Abdulla. His further television credits include; MOOD (BBC/Bonafide), Hope Street (BBC/Britbox), Casualty (BBC), and Doctors (BBC).
Film roles include; What’s Love Got To Do With It? (Instinct Productions) and Now and Then (BFI). Most recently, he starred in the Omnibus production & tour of the powerful one-man show 10 Nights by Shahid Iqbal Khan directed by Samir Bhamra. Before this, he was at the National Theatre playing the roles of Daulat & British Policeman in their stunning production of The Father & The Assassin. Azan played the role of Ferdinand at Shakespeare’s Globe in their latest production of The Tempest, directed by Diane Page. His other theatre credits include; Conspiracy (New Diorama Theatre & Underbelly Edinburgh), This Isn’t a True Story (Almeida Theatre), Cacophony (Yard Theatre) & Never Swim Alone (Etcetera Theatre). Azan is also an award-winning writer. His debut play Daytime Deewane (Half Moon & Tour) won the 2023 Offie Award for Best TYA Writing. He is currently being mentored by Roy Williams as part of Hampstead Theatre’s INSPIRE cohort. Azan is the founder of Deen & Dunya, a platform for Muslim voices to be celebrated through poetry, music and performance – they have had enormous success to date selling out the Bush Theatre, Royal Court & The Globe. Azan trained with the Bush Theatre Young Company and Almeida Young Company.
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Antonia Salib
HER
Antonia Salib
HER
Antonia Salib is a British-Egyptian actor. Her credits include Hijack (Apple TV+), Moon Knight (Disney+), The Play That Goes Wrong (Duchess Theatre), Black Ice (Theatre503), Biosphere (Pleasance Theatre), The Funeral (Kings Head Theatre) and Know You Well (Southwark Playhouse).
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Oli Higginson
HIM (Cover)
Oli Higginson
HIM (Cover)
(Due to unforeseen illness, Azan Ahmed is temporarily unable to perform in the role of HIM in After Sex. We are pleased to announce that Oli Higginson will be stepping in to cover the role during this time. We appreciate your understanding and support during this temporary adjustment.)
Oli Higginson has just been seen in Othello at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre. On screen, Oli was recently seen reprising his role in the most recent season of Bridgerton. Other television credits include Michael Winterbottom’s Sky Atlantic show This England, Emily Mortimer’s The Pursuit of Love opposite Lily James for BBC and Julia for HBO, playing singer ‘Jacques Brel’.
Oli starred as the lead in the West End transfer of Southwark Playhouse’s critically acclaimed production of The Last Five Years, for which he was nominated for a Stage Debut Award and an Offie Award. Other theatre work includes; Smoke at Southwark Playhouse, Soho Theatre’s touring production of Lava; A Christmas Carol (The Old Vic); The Haystack (Hampstead Theatre); Maggie & Ted (Garrick Theatre), and Brutus in Julius Caesar for the Sam Wanamaker Festival at The Globe.
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Siofra Dromgoole
Writer
Siofra Dromgoole
Writer
Siofra Dromgoole has written four plays to critical acclaim and sold-out performances across the UK, London and Australia: Ripe Tomato (2023) Baby, What Blessings (2019-2022) If It Didn’t Matter (2019) and Walk Swiftly and With Purpose (2018) She is co-artistic director of theatre company Three Sisters.
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Izzy Parriss
Director/Producer
Izzy Parriss
Director/Producer
Izzy Parriss is a freelance theatre director and producer. She is the Artistic Director of Izzy Parriss Productions, Lead Producer and Associate Director at Tightrope Theatre and Lead Producer for The AIDS Plays Project. Her freelance credits include work with Ambassador Theatre Group, Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, Theatre503, Three Sisters Productions, Omnibus Theatre, Theatr Clwyd, Yvonne Arnaud Theatre and Bomb Factory Theatre. After Sex is Izzy’s London directing debut. Her associate directing credits include Ikaria and Cold Water, both performed with Tightrope Theatre.
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Philippa Lawford
Associate Director
Philippa Lawford
Associate Director
Philippa is a writer-director from London. Her debut play, Ikaria, won a runner-up award from the ATG Playwrights’ Prize and an OFFIE Short Run Commendation, and was named no. 2 on Broadway World’s list of Best Theatre of 2022. Ikaria toured the UK in 2023, culminating in an acclaimed run at the Park Theatre, where it was nominated for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. Ikaria was produced by Philippa’s company, Tightrope Theatre, and was published by Methuen Drama. Philippa’s second play, Cold Water, will be staged at the Park Theatre in May 2024. Philippa also works as an assistant director and script reader/facilitator. She is a member of Marylebone Theatre’s emerging writers group and has read for the Finborough and the ETPEP award. Alongside her work with Offshoots, Philippa co-runs the Clonterbrook Arts Residency in Cheshire.
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Stella Moss
Intimacy Director
Stella Moss
Intimacy Director
Stella Moss is a London based critically acclaimed Intimacy Coordinator & Director. Known for her work for both stage and screen, Stella’s approach to intimacy is defined as intuitive, authentic and collaborative, prioritising an inclusive representation of intimacy. Compassion, communication and humour is at the core of all of her work.
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Helen Noir
Music and Sound Designer
Helen Noir
Music and Sound Designer
Helen Noir is a London-based soprano who combines performance work with composing, orchestration, sound design and production, creating soundtracks for multiple film and theatre projects Helen is also resident composer of The AIDS Plays Project and a longterm member of cult performance art group Theo Adams Company.
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Simeon Miller
Lighting Designer
Simeon Miller
Lighting Designer
Simeon has worked as a Lighting Designer since he graduated from Mountview Academy in 2010. He works across theatre, dance, musicals, ‘gig theatre’ and devised work. He enjoys contributing to new writing, especially socially and politically conscious work which amplifies oppressed and radical voices.
Selected recent credits include: Brief Encounter (Royal Exchange); Silence (UK Tour); Cowbois (RSC and Royal Court); Pass It On (Bush Theatre); As We Face The Sun (Bush Theatre); Alice In Wonderland (Liverpool Everyman and Plymouth Theatre Royal); The Sun Shines For Everyone (Lyric Hammersmith); The Book of Will (Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch, Bolton Octagon & Shakespeare North Playhouse); Ruckus (Southwark Playhouse & Summerhall, Edinburgh); Jekyll and Hyde (Derby Theatre & Queen’s Theatre Hornchurch); Christmas in the Sunshine (Unicorn Theatre); Follow the Signs (Soho Theatre); The Poison Belt (Jermyn Street Theatre); Project Dictator (New Diorama Theatre); An Adventure (Bolton Octagon); Metamorphoses (The Globe); The Mob Reformers (Lyric Hammersmith); Subject Mater (Edinburgh Fringe); Black Holes (international Tour); and High Rise eState of Mind (UK Tour).
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Pip Terry
Set Consultant
Pip Terry
Set Consultant
Pip Terry is a set and costume designer and scenic artist. She graduated from Wimbledon College of Art with a degree in Theatre Design in 2020. Pip won the Linbury Prize for Stage Design in 2021 and worked as the Kiln Theatre’s Resident Assistant Designer throughout 2022. She is currently designing My English Persian Kitchen (Traverse Theatre/Soho Theatre) and a schools tour of The Shivers with New Diorama Theatre.
Credits:
As Assistant: Ali The Musical (Broadway); Nachtland (Young Vic); A Christmas Carol (Finnish National Opera); Black Love, Girl on an Altar, The Darkest Part of the Night, Handbagged (Kiln Theatre); Kerry Jackson (National Theatre).
As Associate: The Time Traveller’s Wife (Apollo Theatre); Splintered (Soho Theatre); Pinocchio (Unicorn Theatre); The Tempest, Hamnet (RSC); Once On This Island (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre).
As Designer: Diva: Live From Hell (Kings Head/Underbelly); The Sex Ed Musical (Schools Tour, Ice and Fire Theatre company); Playmaking Festival 2023 (RSC); Rise (Kiln Theatre, Young Company); Sticks and Stones (Tristan Bates); The Hunting of the Snark, The House at the Centre of the World (Rose Theatre, Youth Theatre); Ad Nauseam (Lyric Hammersmith’s Evolution Festival).
Pip has also worked on Disney’s Frozen (Theatre Royal Drury Lane), Moulin Rouge! (Piccadilly Theatre), Cabaret (the Kit Kat Club), and Death of England (National Theatre) as a scenic artist.
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Nadine Elise Muncey
Co-Movement Director
Nadine Elise Muncey
Co-Movement Director
Nadine is a contemporary dance artist, choreographer and movement director.
Graduating from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, she performed works by Joss Arnott, Hubert Essakow, Sonia Rafferty and Hofesh Shechter. She went on to study for an MA in Dance Performance, performing works by Karole Armitage, Marina Collard and Hetain Patel.
She has choreographed and performed Surfacing, Resurfacing, a site-specific work at John Maine’s Arena, as well as co-creating and performing Landscape No. 8 at Resolution Festival 2022. As part of Resolution 2023, she performed in Gathering Clouds by Petronella Wiehahn and premiered her own work titled soft surge – a contemporary dance work that she is continuing research for.
Nadine has performed works by Julian Nichols for Bodies in Action Dance, Extended Play and Róisıń Whelan Dance and has walked for fashion designer Izzy McCormac as part of her Jinal collection at Central Saint Martins. Nadine has also been involved in music videos for artists Cryalot, Rokia Kone, Henri, MAVICA and Dua Lipa.
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Rachel Laird
Co-Movement Director
Rachel Laird
Co-Movement Director
Rachel is a freelance dance artist from Scotland and trained at Copenhagen Contemporary Dance School for her Postgraduate, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance for her BA (HONS) degree and prior to this at The Scottish School of Contemporary Dance and National Youth Dance Company of Scotland.
Since being freelance Rachel has performed for Highly Sprung, English National Opera, Garsington Opera, Peut-Etre Theatre, Next Door Dance, Tess Letham, Roisin O’Brien, The Natashas Project, Page One theatre and A Truefitt Collective among others. In 2019 she co-founded Dance theatre company Sliding Doors Collective.
Rachel has taught throughout Scotland, England, Copenhagen and China as a teacher independently as well as representing performance companies as a contemporary dance teacher, dancing mindfulness facilitator and yoga/meditation teacher.
She also teaches adult beginner dance and contemporary.
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Stephanie Burrell
Movement Consultant
Stephanie Burrell
Movement Consultant
Stephanie Burrell is an artist who works within dance and performance. Originally from Manchester, she trained at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in Contemporary Dance before going onto study Spanish and German at King’s College London. Stephanie’s performance credits span between London, Berlin and Mexico City.
Stephanie has performed for Hallomai Dance, West Green House Opera Festival and Ballhaus Naunynstraße in Berlin.
Her choreography work has seen her make and facilitate works for screen, stage and installation. Her credits include Freight Theatre, Phoebe Von Held Brecht installation at Raven Row and more recently music videos for Shivani Day and British Latin artist Sophie Castillo.
Stephanie also makes her own physical theatre work with collaborator Erin Hughes under Birthday Fish Theatre. 2024 will see their Edinburgh Fringe debut.
