Guest Blog: 'It Offers Intimacy Without Spectacle': Producer and Actor Olivia Lindsay on CONVERSATIONS AFTER SEX at the Park Theatre

Creating Conversations After Sex was a raw, intimate, and often challenging process—much like the show itself. At its core, the project began with a question: What happens in those unguarded moments between people when they think no one is watching?

The title might suggest provocation, but the aim was never titillation. It was about truth—what lingers after the physical connection, when words become the only thing left between two people. The early development stages were focused more on tone. We knew we weren’t creating a traditional drama or sitcom. We wanted a show that felt like eavesdropping—where conversations didn’t always resolve neatly, and characters weren’t always likeable, but they were always real.

Mark [O’Halloran] has written dialogue that is painfully honest, sometimes meandering, and almost always charged with subtext. We leaned into silence, awkwardness, contradiction—the things most shows try to smooth over. We built the show around emotional moments, not plot points. Each episode had to feel like its own confession. There were times in the rehearsal room when people cried as the text brought up a lot of personal experiences.

Casting was crucial. These characters live or die by the nuance of their performance. We needed actors who could carry entire scenes with a glance or a half-said line. We weren’t looking for "big performances." We were looking for truth-tellers—people who could inhabit the discomfort of intimacy without over-explaining it.Chemistry tests weren’t just about romantic tension; they were about the rhythm of silence, the feel of breath between lines.

In the rehearsal process we created an atmosphere where actors felt safe enough to be exposed—emotionally and sometimes physically. That meant working closely with out intimacy coordinator Jo Nastari but also just building trust. Our amazing director Jess Edwards came from a background where character and dialogue drive the scene. There was no room for vanity.

Thematically, Conversations After Sex is about more than post-coital conversations. It’s about loneliness, connection, and the fragile rituals we use to make meaning in a disconnected world. In many ways, it’s a reflection of a modern emotional climate—where people are deeply hungry for connection, but also terrified of the vulnerability it requires. It’s about the strange in-between moments that never make it into most theatre and TV the morning after a breakup, the moment just before someone leaves, the realisation that you love someone too late.

From an industry perspective, the messiness was the hook. What’s been most gratifying is hearing from audiences who say they felt seen by the show. People have written in to say specific conversations felt like a conversation they had once but never thought they’d see portrayed on stage. That’s the power of showing life in its quietest, most honest moments.

Conversations After Sex is not about resolution—it’s about recognition. It’s a show that listens, that holds space, and in doing so, offers something rare: intimacy without spectacle. 

Conversations After Sex is at The Park Theatre until 17 May