In this award-winning English export, Jack Holden portrays thirty-five characters to dramatize the 1981 murder of a violent, petty criminal in the small rural town of Skidmore, Missouri. Why this crime? Why now? Why just one actor?
The point seems to be to demonstrate Jack Holden’s prowess. His performance certainly is impressive, aided by some effective staging to create a sense of suspense. But it all comes at a cost.
The murder of Ken Rex McElroy is an infamous case, the subject of several documentaries, a bestselling book, and a TV movie starring Brian Dennehy. Forty -five years after McElroy’s death, the crime is still unsolved, even though some fifty people from the town reportedly witnessed it. McElroy was the alleged town bully, taken to court more than twenty times for harassing his neighbors, stealing from them, assaulting them – and always let off. This was in part, according to the show, because the isolated town had no police department, and because McElory had a crafty lawyer, but also because he aggressively intimidated accusers and witnesses. The townsfolk who were his victims had apparently had enough.
Holden’s most vivid impersonation is of McElroy himself; he bulks up his shoulders in move that reminded me of John Wayne swaggering walk, and deepens his voice to sound like the devil himself.
Other characters are almost as easy to distinguish: There is the ineffectual new local prosecutor, who serves as the narrator, often speaking to Federal Agent Annette Parker (who exists only on a tape recorder), although he also often jousts with the defense attorney who likes toying with him. There is Trena, the 14-year-old girl McElway impregnates and then marries so she can’t testify against him for statuary rape; she seems shy and manipulated at first but turns as monstrous as he. There is the mayor of the town, and a preacher. But most of the rest of the characters– townsfolk straight out of Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town” until they sour into the denizens of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” – were harder for me to keep track of individually, especially in the mob scenes, although they (he) worked well together as an ensemble.
I blamed myself for getting confused, but I also wondered: Why is using just one actor the best way to tell this story about an entire community’s victimization and vigilante justice? Arthur Miller’s first production of “A View from the Bridge” began with a cast of 15, and doubled in size in future productions, many of the performers without lines, to give a sense of a community bearing witness, and judging, the actions of the principal characters.
Late last year, Holden told a British interviewer “theatre fans will love it, but it’s also great show to bring theatre sceptics to: it’s like a gig, a Netflix true-crime show, and podcast all rolled into one.”
A gig. Almost everything about the production none-too-subtly resembles a rock concert and turns Holden into a rock star. The title sounds like the name of a rock band. Jack Patrick Elliot plays rock solos on his electric guitar in-between (and sometimes during) the scenes. There is lots of stage smoke, and flashing lights, and loud sound effects.
“KENREX” may not be as poor a fit for American audiences as previous UK efforts to put American dysfunction on stage (such as “Enron” and “Tammy Faye”), but Holden’s rocking performance does tend to put the spotlight more on him than the people of Skidmore.
KENREX
Lucille Lortel Theater through June 27
Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes, with one intermission
Tickets: $97 – $184
Performed by Jack Holden
Written by Jack Holden and Ed Stamboullouian
Directed by Ed Stamboullouian,
Composed by Jack Patrick Elliot
Set and costume design by Anisha Fields, lighting and video design by Joshua Pharo, sound design by Giles Thomas, with movement direction by Sarah Golding.
Photographs by Pamela Raith
