'KENREX' review — this astonishing true-crime tale is electrifying, brutal and completely gripping

Read our review of KENREX, starring Jack Holden, now in performances at The Other Palace to 1 February 2026.

Summary

• KENREX tells the true crime tale of criminal Ken Rex McElroy in 1980s small-town America
• Jack Holden and Ed Stambollouian's gripping play examines justice and retribution
• Holden also stars in a tour-de-force solo performance
• The show features pulsating music by John Patrick Elliot

Skidmore, Missouri, 1981. Ken Rex McElroy was a thoroughly bad, predatory criminal who conducted a reign of terror over his local community for years. Yet thanks to a slippery attorney, he never spent a night in jail. After shooting a much-loved elderly butcher, he was brought to the attention of District Attorney David Baird, but before justice could be served, Kenrex was shot and killed. Despite a large crowd of witnesses, no one would name the shooter and to this day no one has been convicted of the crime.

It is through Baird that we hear this story, told to an FBI investigator. It’s familiar stuff to any true crime podcast enthusiast, but co-writers Jack Holden and Ed Stambollouian (who also directs) inject such menace and jeopardy into the production that it is hard to look away.

Holden thrillingly plays every single role both distinctively and effortlessly, whether sullen and taciturn Kenrex with his slanted gait or charismatic defence lawyer Richard McFadin who seemingly glides around the stage. A small shift in posture and tone from Holden portrays a complete community: from the affable landlady of the town bar to Kenrex’s 14-year-old pregnant wife and even the overly cheerful local radio DJ.

Another crucial dimension to the show is John Patrick Elliot’s pulsating folk-Americana soundtrack (which he performs live), often loudly punctuating scenes with blasts of rock guitar or synthesised sound. It immerses you in the rural, dusty and isolated Skidmore. Giles Thomas’s stellar sound design means Holden’s voice moves from a phone call to a radio show to ordinary dialogue with total conviction. There’s also clever use of pre-recorded voices and judiciously deployed sound effects.

The show acts partly as a dramatisation of a podcast recording, presenting us with the various characters and some of their background stories, but it is much more than that. Stambollouian’s dynamic direction gives us clever and highly theatrical stagecraft, with Holden conjuring a complete scene with little more than a microphone. The track introducing us to the dodgy practices of McFadin and the insidious threat posed by Kenrex is just one sequence slickly performed and deftly constructed, Elliot’s infectious chorus melding with McFadin’s rapid-fire answers to a perplexed judge.

Never sensationalising its subject, the production is also an examination of justice and retribution in small-town America, where poverty, lack of opportunity and a questionable legal system bubble under an ordinary community just trying to get by. Their silence in the face of Kenrex’s murder (nicely illustrated by Holden pulling the power cords out of a circle of microphones) shows the clash between what is legal and what is just.

Anisha Fields’s sparse set design makes full use of height of The Other Palace’s stage, with a movable step ladder, LED-lit doorway, and a platform at the back which Holden bounds up and down throughout.

Originated in Sheffield and last seen at the Southwark Playhouse in February, KENREX has inched closer to the West End. This electrifying, brutal and gripping work surely deserves a place there very soon.

KENREX is at The Other Palace to 1 February 2026. Book KENREX tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk.

Photo credit: KENREX (Photos by Pamela Raith)