REVIEW: KENREX at Playhouse Sheffield

This stunning one-man show by performer and author Jack Holden is based on the real events in a typical small mid-west town in Missouri in 1981 and feels like a slice of Trumpian America.

Co-written by Holden and Ed Stambollouian, it brings to visceral life the dark days of terror brought to Skidmore by Ken Rex McElroy, a bully and psychopath with a penchant for young girls and killer dogs.

Nothing happens in Skidmore, they say, the nearest sheriff is hours away and the cops are too scared to bring him to heel.

You can almost taste every speck of dust and dirt in Skidmore, population 400, like an old black and white movie - simply created through the brilliance of Holden's voice and innovative sound affects.

With designer Anisha Fields’s sparse, inventive set, as his backdrop, Holden plays 11 characters, speaking thousands of words of dialogue, including amazing cross-talk amongst the townsfolk, switching between characters with powerful ease. Slick and fast, there's great work from lighting and video designer Joshua Pharo and sound designer Giles Thomas.

His roles range from prosecuting district attorney David Baird, to bar-owner landlady Ida Smith, hilariously slimy, corrupt lawyer Richard McFadin, to the gross McElroy himself, whose mere truck lights send a shiver down every spine.

Add John Patrick Elliott's mournful and electrifying live soundtrack on stage - steeped in country and western but with rock and punk breaking out – the atmosphere is thrilling.

Holden, star of Cruise which was also written with Stambollouian, is absolutely awesome, as a classic USA billboard at the back outlines the scenes and a gantry elevates the stage action.

Holden displays amazing energy in the role of narrator, the law officer Baird, as he answers questions from FBI agent Annette Parker, whose voice comes out of an old tape recorder. But his dexterity knows no bound, from playing a teenage girl singing the Star Spangled Banner to dancing toe-toe-toe at the town's hoe-down.

Big moral questions arise at the end, as McIlroy's widow, Treena, 12 when they met and later pregnant, demands justice.

But it's Holden's performance which is outstanding – still proving live theatre can go where other settings can't.