We sat down with Ed Stambollouian who directed KENREX, coming to Southwark Playhouse Borough from the 14th February to 15th March. Tickets here.
Kenrex blends true crime and Western – if you could be in any classic Western movie, which one would it be and why?
Jack and I are genre nerds, and KENREX is a bit of an ode to True Crime podcasts and documentaries. But there’s also a good sprinkling of Western in there too. We’ve drawn from the golden era of Western film making: Sergio Leone, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Butch Cassidy, Once Upon a Time in the West. We love their folkloric storytelling, tense standoffs, dusty one-horse towns and their soaring, unforgettable soundtracks.
But which would I be in? I’m not sure I’m cut out for the Old West; I don’t do well in extreme heat, I’m scared of gunshots, and I fell off a horse when I was 6 and haven’t been back on one since…
The show is rooted in a real-life event—how did you balance staying true to the facts while bringing a theatrical, larger-than-life energy to the stage?
This is an incredibly well documented story. Over the years there have been numerous books, countless documentaries, two movie adaptations, not to mention the huge amount of national press coverage the story initially received, including an incredible episode of 60 minutes in which all of the characters are interviewed just months after the events of the play. So we had a wealth of material to draw from.
The real challenge wasn’t what the story was, but whose story we were telling. We could have focused solely on the townsfolk, on Ken’s volatile relationship with his teenage bride Trena, or on the broken legal system that failed to stop him. Ultimately, we chose to tell it from the perspective of David Baird, the young prosecuting attorney fresh out of law school. His first case is to untangle what really happened in Skidmore. He believes in the rule of law, but as events unfold, he’s forced to confront the murky, intangible nature of justice.
Jack Holden plays multiple characters in the show—what’s the trickiest part of switching between them so fast?
Jack and I have worked together for years. He’s my closest collaborator and one of my absolute favourite actors. His ability to morph between KENREX’s 20 or so characters is nothing short of extraordinary. With just a flick of the wrist, a shift in posture, or a turn of the head, you immediately know who he’s playing.
When we were rehearsing we spoke about the different qualities of switching between characters. Sometimes the transformations are explosive, broad and bold; like Jekyll turning to Hyde, or a man turning into a werewolf. These transformations are full bodied and physical. Other moments in the play require much simpler, subtler, almost imperceptible changes in character. Quieter scenes, with more delicate characters, where Jack can gently shift between two centres of energy, or softly realign his focus. We explored this sliding scale of transformations a lot during rehearsals, and you can see both ends of the spectrum in Jack’s performance.
What drew you to telling the story of Ken McElroy, and why do you think it resonates with audiences today?
Jack and I are fascinated by true crime and were searching for the right story to bring the genre to the stage. Then we came across Ken Rex McElroy and the town of Skidmore. It’s an incredible case because it’s a whodunit—except in this version, the answer is… everyone?
At its core, this is a story about justice, or rather, the failure of the justice system. It raises uncomfortable but universal questions: When is it justified to take the law into your own hands? What happens when good people do bad things?
Even though KENREX is set in small-town America in the 1970s, its themes couldn’t be more relevant today. We live in a world where powerful people seem to evade consequences—where the justice system often fails those who need it most. And when an actual convicted criminal is about to begin his second term as President of the United States, well… the story suddenly feels even more urgent.
Music plays a huge role in Kenrex—how did John Patrick Elliott’s score influence the storytelling process?
KENREX is, in many ways, a two-man show. John performs his electrifying, live score on stage alongside Jack every night. The two of them first collaborated on Cruise, their Olivier-nominated West End play, where John’s searing ’80s pop and electronica soundtrack brought 1980s Soho and the AIDS crisis to life.
For KENREX, John has gone deep into Americana, Bluegrass, and Southern Gothic to create a mind-blowing score (which, by the way, is now available on Spotify—go have a listen!). His music is a vital part of the storytelling, whether it’s building nail-biting tension, giving the audience a moment to breathe, or propelling the plot toward its chilling climax.
With such a fast-paced and dynamic show, what have been the biggest challenges in staging and movement direction?
Microphones. Microphones. Microphones!
Since KENREX is an homage to true crime, we’ve put sound, audio, and tape recordings at the very heart of the show. We worked with the brilliant sound designer Giles Thomas to create an intricate audio world—think police interceptors, 1970s radio broadcasts, scratchy payphone calls, FBI deposition tapes, and static-filled TV infomercials.
To pull this off, we’re using 12 microphones, each programmed with different vocal effects to match the moment. It’s like a live soundscape being built in real time. The biggest challenge? Jack has to not only memorize an enormous amount of dialogue and seamlessly switch between 20 characters, but also keep track of which mic to use, when, and how—not to mention avoiding a tangled mess of cables!
Just thinking about it makes me break into a cold sweat. Luckily, we have the cool, steady hand of movement director Sarah Golding keeping us sane.