Playhouse, Sheffield – until 16th November 2024
Review by Sharon Farley
5*****
Captures your attention like a bear trap
While technically this can be billed as a phenomenal one man show, it’s also the combination of sound (Giles Thomas), lighting (Joshua Pharo), and set design (Anisha Fields) that makes KENREX truly electrifying. The senses are bombarded with information that ratchets up the adrenaline and excitement almost from start to finish. Don’t let the meandering, low-key entrance of the performers fool you, you’re going to need to brace yourself for an explosive stage show that captures your attention like a bear trap.
Jack Holden (Cruise, Ten Percent, Marriage) and Ed Stambollouian (Night School, Joe Lycett: More, More, More, BLUSH) have co-written this dramatisation of a true crime story set in small town Missouri. Stambollouian also directs while Holden performs their sizzling interpretation of how a hulking miscreant terrorises the townsfolk of Skidmore for years until they are pushed to the brink. The law repeatedly fails to protect them, so they rain down their own justice upon him in broad daylight before 60 pairs of eyes, yet his murder remains unsolved. This is no spoiler, the case is well documented, but this version brings the events to life in a wild ride that will leave you clinging to the edge of your seat.
Holden’s performance is mesmerising, he contorts his way through a plethora of characters, twisting from the sinister to the comical, the belligerent to the stoic, and back again. Not only does he single-handedly deliver two hours of intense dialogue, but he does so with blistering precision. Every movement is carefully calculated to allow each voice in this terrible tale to be heard.
The masterful use of space and light is ignited into vivid technicolor by the high-octane soundtrack created by John Patrick Elliot (The Little Unsaid), an award-winning composer who both wrote and performs the live, foot stomping Americana that brilliantly underpins the drama created by Holden, giving KENREX the feel of a big screen, cinematic epic unfolding before your eyes.
A stage play as rigorous and captivating as KENREX is a rare thing of beauty. Throughout the interval, the buzz rippling through the audience was palpable and the performers received a well deserved standing ovation at the end. Sheffield has been treated to a first look at this production that, if justice is served, will run and run.
Bravo!