Writer: Alexis Gregory
Director: Campbell X
There are unreliable narrators, and there are unreliable narrators. Some keep their deception or disillusion right down to the last minutes of a play or up to the final page of a novel, but in his one-man show about chemsex paranoia, Alexis Gregory’s narrator reveals himself in the first ten minutes of the play when he talks about fake shops in Acton Town.
This early disclosure somewhat spoils the story, which is based on Gregory’s own experiences. Knowing that Alex is suffering from chemsex psychosis, the audience is therefore invited to watch him hit rock bottom. He believes that the world is against him, and that people on the street and baristas in Acton Town’s branch of Starbucks are spies or criminals, pretending to be his dead boyfriend.
But there is still some ambiguity in the account by Gregory’s protagonist. We don’t know if he’s still using drugs (crystal meth and/or GHB) – he says he isn’t, but we can’t be sure if he’s telling the truth – or if his paranoia is a result of his previous addiction. Likewise, he alludes to some kind of inappropriate relationships with a male teacher when he was at school, but is this another symptom of the drugs or is Alex’s bad mental health an historical issue only exacerbated by the drugs? Probably not, but the play could do with some more uncertainty to keep the audience on its toes.
Perhaps the most striking element of Smoke is the lack of stagecraft: the lights remain on throughout, making the auditorium uncomfortably hot; there is no sound design; and the only props are a mobile phone and a chair. The audience has nowhere to hide, and neither does Gregory, who delivers his monologue without sound or lighting prompts that traditionally prove so useful to one-person shows.
Nonetheless, Gregory consummately relates Alex’s tale, sometimes walking into the audience, showing them the transmitter he imagines is in his mouth. Alex’s swagger is dangerous and disturbing.
Surprisingly, for a play about chemsex, there is little reference to drugs or sex. However, after each performance, a panel of experts, charity workers and doctors, curated by non-profit organisation You Are Loved (YAL), discusses the causes and consequences of addiction that is causing so many deaths in the queer community. Chemsex is often referred to as the new epidemic, coming so soon after HIV/AIDS, and yet, apart from theatre, no one is really talking about it. As Alex says, “we’re always dying.”
Runs until 25 April 2026 and continues to tour
