Smoke – King’s Head Theatre, London

Writer: Alexis Gregory

Director: Campbell X

Receiving a message from your boyfriend who has been dead for two years is enough to send anyone into a spiral and acts as the launching point for Smoke at Islington’s King’s Head Theatre – a tight 60-minute queer thriller that deals thoughtfully with difficult themes, and is a whirlwind of suspense.

There is almost no lighting or set in Campbell X’s staging as Alex (Alexis Gregory) tells his story. He starts by boldly showing the audience the message from ‘Ben’ – his deceased boyfriend – and launching into the mystery of who sent the message.

Smoke becomes less of a thriller when it becomes clear that Alex is unwell; after initially dealing quite sensibly with the mysterious message, he then quickly falls deep into schizophrenic paranoia, talking of transmitters in his brain, electric shocks in his mouth, and the idea that the person behind his dead boyfriend’s message is part of a wider conspiracy of actors and the government, all to attack him in some way.

But it is just as tense as a thriller, built from the erratic behaviour we’re witness to and intimately involved in. It’s frequently a truly unsettling performance from writer and performer Alexis Gregory in that there’s no telling what Alex will do next. Gregory often sits in the audience and turns to those on either side, addressing the whole audience directly throughout; we’re so physically close to his behaviour that we’re forced into it, too.

Occasionally, this unpredictability feels more like under-rehearsal, like it isn’t just the character who isn’t sure what he is going to do next. It means some crucial emotional beats are missed in Gregory’s performance, and X’s direction fails to meet the intensity of the moment the subject matter requires.

This is felt at the end, for example, when the theme of no lighting or set is broken, and there is an attempt to suggest that Alex’s recovery is ongoing and that his experience will stay with him. It’s a fair plot point, but in these moments, the storytelling is weakened by the fact it feels performedand, therefore, feels less real and takes the audience out of the story.

At other times, however, the storytelling is seamless; X’s staging is so stripped back there’s no pomp or magic tricks, and keeping the audience mostly engaged through that is a testament to the strength of the text and the pacing.

Difficult themes of sexual assault, drugs, tragic deaths of young gay men, and wider intricacies in the queer community are handled with nuance and grace. Themes blend in with Alex’s character and are not shoehorned in to give the narrative a ‘message’, and this is when the production succeeds the most. The times when the story is just told and not performedshow Gregory is writing straight from the soul, and many of those lines linger with you well after the show.

A mixed bag, but undeniably Smoke at King’s Head Theatre succeeds in providing an unsettling and thought-provoking Queer thriller.

Runs until 11 November 2024