Michelle de Swarte - The Afters ★★★★★

There is something quietly fitting about Michelle de Swarte christening her latest tour The Afters. On the surface, it nods to her former model life in New York’s party scene, one of excess, chaos and questionable decision-making. But what unfolds on stage feels less like an afterparty and more like an afterlife, a reflective, frequently unfiltered reckoning with everything that comes once the partying is no longer fun.

De Swarte first came to proper public attention when she took a now-infamous tumble during a 2002 Gucci catwalk show. Since then, she has steadily reshaped her career, emerging as an actor, presenter and, most compellingly, a stand-up with a distinctive and confident voice. Recent scene-stealing appearances on Graham Norton and Claudia Winkleman’s BBC chat shows have elevated her profile, and the stage proves a natural habitat for her.

Above all a raconteur, there is an ease to her delivery that makes even the most outrageous anecdotes feel conversational, as though the audience has simply joined her midway through a particularly lively evening. Her material moves fluidly between past and present, from drug-fuelled misadventures in her twenties to the realities of ageing, perimenopause and shifting identity in her forties. It is frank, often riotously filthy, but anchored by a sharp observational intelligence that keeps it from ever feeling indulgent.

Much of the show’s strength lies in the tension between who she was and who she is now. De Swarte (whose sitcom, Spent, was criminally axed after just one season) is acutely aware of the contradictions in her own story: the working-class roots that shaped her, the A-lister access and success that followed, and the cultural spaces she now navigates. These threads are explored with brutal honesty, frequently undercut by barbs that land with a punch. Asides about brushes with Jeffery Epstein and P Diddy, in particular, feel genuinely shocking.

If there are flaws in the evening, they are largely external. The sound quality at Nottingham Playhouse proves inconsistent, at times blunting the impact of de Swarte’s material. It is a frustrating distraction, though not enough to derail the momentum of the performance.

The Afters succeeds because it feels lived-in. This is not a neatly packaged hour of stand-up, but something looser, more conversational, and all the better for it. De Swarte’s ability to hold a room, to pivot between the profane and the perceptive without losing either, marks her out as a powerhouse performer.