Review: KENREX, Southwark Playhouse

In a vigorous virtuoso performance that demands to be seen, Jack Holden brings to exhilarating life a true-life crime story from half a century ago.

A lean and mean show with powerful cinematic stylings that barely lets up, Kenrex recounts the life and death of Ken Rex McElroy in the tiny MidWest city of Skidmore, Missouri. He was a bull of a man and a villain through and through, notorious for acts of theft, arson and assault when he wasn’t busy grooming the 14-year-old he would eventually marry. When he was shot to death in his pickup one night in 1981, there were sixty locals present and (apart from his wife who was sat next to him) not one of them provided police with the names of the multiple assailants. The murder remains unsolved.

Co-writers Holden and director Ed Stambollouian take liberty with and even embellish some of the facts (for example, there were only 46 people around when McElroy was killed). That doesn’t detract, though, from a stunning theatrical tour-de-force built around a highly physical display from Holden that leaves him visibly sweating by the end. He takes on around a dozen roles, hopping from one to another with convincing and distinctive characterisations. 

We witness many of the events through the eyes of a newcomer, real-life District Attorney David Baird. Fully aware that McElroy has already faced 21 different charges and has yet to spend a single night in jail, he takes a personal interest when the man known to his few friends as Ken (and to everyone else as Kenrex) shoots and seriously maims an elderly grocer.

This time, the only obstacles between the bully and a lengthy prison sentence is a willing witness and defence lawyer Richard McFadin; of all the characters taken on by Holden, he is the most interesting, being as charismatic and wily as his client is sullen and brutal: two parts Saul Goodman, one part Nick "Mr Loophole" Freeman, McFadin has so far managed to get McElroy off the hook each and every time they have come up in front of a judge. Baird, though, has a plan of his own.

An incredibly immersive atmosphere is achieved through a combination of John Patrick Elliot’s live Americana soundtrack which jangles with authentic country when not providing spine tingling sound effects. The set from Anisha Fields is a handy combination of the functional (a platform reached by a moving ladder) and the ingenious (a LED-framed doorway on wheels that serves multiple metaphorical purposes).

Giles Thomas’s sound design ensures that some of the world-building load is taken off Holden's shoulders by throwing in heavy duty sound effects (blaring sirens or deafening shotguns) alongside more subtle cues. Some character voices are pre-recorded and arrive either over the PA or seemingly from a reel-to-reel tape recorder which spools away in front of us. The overall effect sinks us deep into the story as we race from one scene to another. 

As the latest show to make its way south from Sheffield Theatres, Kenrex has a sturdy pedigree. In 2023, Accidental Death Of An Anarchist was another highly dynamic work that was my play of that year and transferred first to the Lyric Hammersmith before a West End run at Theatre Royal Haymarket. That was followed in 2024 by the highly-acclaimed Standing On Sky’s Edge, another five-star effort which played at the National then migrated soon after to the bigger Gillian Lynne.

It’s not difficult to see a similar trajectory for Kenrex even if its current staging is an challenge for traditional proscenium settings. To really shine, it will need to be presented in the round ideally somewhere like @Sohoplace (a theatre not shy when it comes to taking on powerful blockbusters like Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson’s Kyoto or Roy Williams and Clint Dyer’s Death of England trilogy).

This work is, ultimately, just a fabrication of dialogue and exposition about a murder that would barely make headlines today in the US, never mind elsewhere. On paper, it shouldn’t work - or at least not be any more effective than the kind of true crime podcasts parodied in Only Murders In The Building. There’s a McElroy in every city in every country in the world, a violent thug who thieves with impunity and deals with grievances by burning down homes or letting one or more of his vicious dogs loose.

In truth, Kenrex the man wasn’t special in life or death. Kenrex the play, on the other hand – with its sublime central performance enhanced by blistering sound, lighting and direction plus a script that Elmore Leonard would have applauded – is a savage masterpiece that hits like a sock full of ball bearings.

Kenrex continues at Southwark Playhouse until 15 March.

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