Premiering his new solo queer thriller Smoke, playwright and performer Alexis Gregory (Riot Act; Future Queer) returns to Kings Head Theatre for a limited run to investigate the blur between reality and fantasy in this post-truth era. Packed with dark humour and suspense, this rollercoaster of a piece presents a comedic thriller that homes in on how today’s modern landscape may impact our grasp on reality, uncovering a hidden world within the everyday. Joined by acclaimed film and theatre director Campbell X (award-winning feature film Stud Life; DES!RE; My White Best Friend, Royal Court Theatre) Smoke removes the theatrics to offer audiences an intimate conversation in Gregory’s most brutally honest and raw piece yet.
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| Campbell X and Alexis Gregory. Photo by Tyler Kelly. |
In this stripped-back, plot-driven production we follow just Alex, his mobile phone, and his story. Smoke explores being a man, being queer, and how unexpectedly being haunted in the digital era by an ex-partner can suddenly spiral into a twisted thriller of clashing realities and uncertain truths. When Alex receives a private Instagram message from his now deceased ex-boyfriend’s account, he finds himself trailing both old leads and new in a haphazard and dangerous attempt to uncover the truth. Smoke confronts today’s obsession with self-documentation, drugs, paranoia, and living and dying in the digital age – when privacy seems an archaic concept, where do we draw the line?
Based on the writer’s own experiences and observations, this one-man piece presents a hard-hitting exploration of an extreme and hidden aspect of queer life in 2024, using sharp humour to face this era of conspiracy theories and high surveillance.
After being hacked himself, Gregory’s own visceral experiences tracing how the invasion of privacy happened, influenced the development of this fast-paced production, as well as his experiences on the LGBTQ+ scene.
We sat down with Alexis and Campbell X to learn more about the piece.
What can you tell me about Smoke?
Alexis: It’s a solo piece about Alex, played by myself, and a peek into his life, as he investigates a message he receives via his dead boyfriends Insta. It may appear to be a simple hack, but it soon becomes apparent something else is going on. Campbell X is directing, one of my favourite artist, who I have waited (literal) years to work with. And I don’t usually ‘do’ patience. We’re at the new Kings Head Theatre, which if you haven’t been to yet, you should. The theatre have been great, and totally embraced me and my work, and have no qualms about staging challenging, but engaging, new queer work, representing variousl facets of our communities lives.
What inspired you to write Smoke?
Aside from my own observations, and experiences of the queer scene, and queer men, I always want to explore unobvious narratives, and create pieces, with amazing collaborators, that are different from my other previous pieces. Yes, Smoke may sit next to my other work, with some cross over, but is stand-alone too. Smoke is, like lots of my work, hard-hitting, but also dark and funny.
Alexis: It’s a solo piece about Alex, played by myself, and a peek into his life, as he investigates a message he receives via his dead boyfriends Insta. It may appear to be a simple hack, but it soon becomes apparent something else is going on. Campbell X is directing, one of my favourite artist, who I have waited (literal) years to work with. And I don’t usually ‘do’ patience. We’re at the new Kings Head Theatre, which if you haven’t been to yet, you should. The theatre have been great, and totally embraced me and my work, and have no qualms about staging challenging, but engaging, new queer work, representing variousl facets of our communities lives.
What inspired you to write Smoke?
Aside from my own observations, and experiences of the queer scene, and queer men, I always want to explore unobvious narratives, and create pieces, with amazing collaborators, that are different from my other previous pieces. Yes, Smoke may sit next to my other work, with some cross over, but is stand-alone too. Smoke is, like lots of my work, hard-hitting, but also dark and funny.
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| Alexis Gregory in Smoke. Photo by Tyler Kelly. |
What was the writing process like for this piece?
Alexis: I initially wrote the play over the summer of 2022 and have been refining it since. Campbell and I had many discussions about the play and it’sthemes over this time too. The play is based on my experience of observing some gay men, and experiences I had myself; for example being the victim of a particularly vicious online hack myself. The play is written to be performed with no tricks, or devices, (ok, hardly any, many a couple) that us theatre makers often reply on, especially with solo pieces. It’s totally stripped back and raw.
How do you think the experiences you lived through help shape you and the piece?
Alexis: Smoke’s been brewing in me for a while. I have for the last couple of decades seen gay men ‘drop off’, get swallowed up, and then often, sadly worse, either dying or killing themselves. This can often, or one assumes, and we explore that assumption in Smoke, be connected to drug abuse. Love may be love, and it may get better, but not for everyone. Queer people still live complex, challenging lives often on the fringes. It isn’t all drag brunches, and televised drag competitions. We are more than that. And carry decades of inherited shared history.
What first drew you to this piece?
Campbell: I was drawn to the piece by the wonderful writing. I could see the humour in spite of the darkness which i think is very queer. I also loved the themes of belonging, urban alienation, crisis in masculinity and mental health and how that affects millennial working class cis white gay men in cities. It is congruent with my work on queer masculinities.
What has the creative process been like between the pair of you in preparing for the run?
Campbell: Lex is a joy to work with. He has really embraced the process of me as a director opening up other interpretations of his words. I understand that sometimes for a writer, especially one acting in his own work, with his own words, with a character called “Alex” that could be challenging. But there is a beautiful collaborative trust between us as we go through the texts, blocking and bodies. I am so far enjoying the journey with Lex. We have wanted to work together for years and share our love of Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston and queer life. Of course, I leapt at the opportunity when I was asked.
Alexis: Campbell has been great and so supportive on this one. Campbell’s direction has been next level from day one, from the pace and blocking of the piece, to notes on how to deliver lines, to pulling out themes in the play that I may not be aware of, or that I may have included subconsciously. I’m an experienced performer, but I won’t lie, this one is kind of terrifying, but Campbell has always created a safe space, is not phased by anything, and alsohappy to go with where I lead it in rehearsal too. Campbell is, quite simply. an extraordinary human being.
How do you approach bringing your vision to Alexis’ text?
Campbell: I encourage Lex to bring Alex, the character, into the room and almost possess him. I am interested in feelings and actualisation of a character through tone, body movement but also the importance of stillness. So much can be done with silence. Theatre is about writing and words. But life is also about listening and reacting to what someone else is saying. How do we make a monologue a dialogue. This has been our conversation. I am also like Lex interested in the use of space to make the audiences imagination walk with Alex as he tells his life and history. As the set is pared down to nothing really, how the mobile phone can have it’s own character, but also the stage - on and off, and the seating can take on new life. This is storytelling in its ancient form. We sat around fires to hear the griots in my ancestral African culture, it was all oral, theatre is a subset of that to be honest.
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| Alexis Gregory in Smoke. Photo by Tyler Kelly. |
Why do you think this piece is timely for 2024 audiences?
Campbell: Freud was said to ask “what do women want?” We also need to ask“what do men want?”. I think there are many assumptions about this, particularly for cis white gay men who are assumed to “have it all”. We are beginning to lack compassion for human beings who even with what is seen as privilege through race and gender have been also damaged by the cis heterosexual patriarchal system because of never being seen as “real men”. This takes it’s toll on femme gay men particularly but also on gay men who who feel they have failed as men and self medicate, or become hypersexual cock focussed gym bunnies to overcompensate for this alleged deficit. SMOKE goes behind the facade of the man to reveal the boy who was hurt. And I think all men will relate to this. And I think women will recognise this boy and man.
Alexis: I think people will smell the London of 2024 in Smoke. From scenes set in Starbucks to the24 hour corner shop, to how we engage online, to turning on the news and being shocked by what is happening next in our crazy world.
How do you think the world especially the Queer community will manage with such access in a digital age?
Alexis: I think access in the digital age can be challenging for all of us, but maybe queer people especially. Queer people can still be lonely and isolated, and online connection can of course help that, but also amplify it. Gay men are often drawn to being over-achievers, and so demonstrating how amazing our lives are on social media is appealing. Also the way gay men may feel the need to sexualise themselves on social media, and what they may feed into; the superficial, and shock when such attention eventually stops. In my last piece FutureQueer, I examined how queers are often on the forefront of embracing new technology (Grindr was ahead Tinder), and how we are often the guinea pigs to experiment on.
Where did your arts careers begin and how did you approach those careers?
Alexis: I started off as a professional child actor, can you believe, and then I became a teen actor, ‘young adult’ actor, and then adult actor. I’d always liked writing, and working as an actor with Rikki Beadle Blair’s Team Angelica company, from the early 2000’s, was really formative for me. I saw these exciting, modern plays being written in the room. Often us actors were sat next to Rikki, on his laptop, rewriting the scene for us. With Rikki and John Gordon’s mentorship I became a playwright in 2012 with my first play Slap. Slap had a couple of outings after that, but it, as my debut play, didn’t get it’sfirst run until 2015. I called myself a playwright from the moment I wrote Slap.
How do you think the world especially the Queer community will manage with such access in a digital age?
Alexis: I think access in the digital age can be challenging for all of us, but maybe queer people especially. Queer people can still be lonely and isolated, and online connection can of course help that, but also amplify it. Gay men are often drawn to being over-achievers, and so demonstrating how amazing our lives are on social media is appealing. Also the way gay men may feel the need to sexualise themselves on social media, and what they may feed into; the superficial, and shock when such attention eventually stops. In my last piece FutureQueer, I examined how queers are often on the forefront of embracing new technology (Grindr was ahead Tinder), and how we are often the guinea pigs to experiment on.
Where did your arts careers begin and how did you approach those careers?
Alexis: I started off as a professional child actor, can you believe, and then I became a teen actor, ‘young adult’ actor, and then adult actor. I’d always liked writing, and working as an actor with Rikki Beadle Blair’s Team Angelica company, from the early 2000’s, was really formative for me. I saw these exciting, modern plays being written in the room. Often us actors were sat next to Rikki, on his laptop, rewriting the scene for us. With Rikki and John Gordon’s mentorship I became a playwright in 2012 with my first play Slap. Slap had a couple of outings after that, but it, as my debut play, didn’t get it’sfirst run until 2015. I called myself a playwright from the moment I wrote Slap.
Campbell: I trained it be a camera assistant and then moved in to directing my own work. I directed a feature film called Stud Life (2012) which is considered to be an iconic Black British queer film. I have directed several shorts like Still We Thrive which is available free till the end of October and written theatre pieces like My White Best Friend for the Royal Court, and co-directed Talking About A Revolution for tiata fahoodzi.
What keeps you inspired?
Campbell: I'm inspired by people around me on the street. I don't drive so people on public transport. I spend possibly too much time on social media lol and listen to so many things on there. People internationally particularly those in Gaza, Sudan, Congo inspire me as they show so much resilience in the face of so much brutality. I am inspired Trans Kids Deserve Better protests as I thought they were so brave. I'm inspired by all the hopeful young people of every decade who thought they could change the world.
What do you want an audience to feel when watching Smoke?
Campbell: I just want them to feel period. We have become so desensitised to other people in Western culture. We need to find compassion and love for other humans again. Let's All Love Again (LALA).
Alexis: If they think ‘wtf?’, I’ll be happy. Also if they understand the world that we present on stage as their own, or see if for the first time and engage with it, and understand it, I’ll be happy too.
Where can audiences see the show?
Alexis: At the new Kings Head Theatre building, the fabulous purpose building. We’re in 4BELOW, the studio space. There are points when I will be centimeters away from the audience. No, forget that, millimeters. Campbell and I have worked hard to give Smoke audiences a night, and experience, at the theatre, that they won’t get elsewhere.
Smoke plays at The King’s Head Theatre until Monday 11th November. Tickets are available from https://kingsheadtheatre.com/whats-on/smoke
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