Kenrex: An American Tragedy Seen Through British Eyes

In 1981, the small town of Skidmore, Missouri, was pushed to its absolute limit. Plagued by Ken Rex McElroy, a local bully who had terrorized residents for decades with impunity, the townspeople took justice into their own hands, shooting him to death in broad daylight. Despite dozens of witnesses, no one saw a thing.

It is a story uniquely steeped in Americana, a blend of firearms, frontier justice, and a distrust of the legal system. Yet, it took a pair of British theatermakers to breathe life into the tale. Created by Jack Holden, Ed Stambollouian, and John Patrick Elliott, the critically acclaimed, genre-bending play Kenrex has reached off-Broadway’s Lucille Lortel Theatre after Olivier Award-winning engagements in London. We sat down with Holden and Elliott to discuss the universal nature of vigilantism, the nerves behind performing for American audiences, and what happened when people from Skidmore came to see them.

This conversation has been condensed and edited for clarity.

I’m curious about how a group of Englishmen discovered a story which feels like it could only take place in America.
Jack Holden: Well, I think I agree, and I disagree. When we were developing the story, my aunt who lives in Lancashire was like “Oh, that’s the story of the guy who was shot in the nearby village.” Plenty of people who came to watch in the UK were like “Oh, it’s Fuenteovejuna.” This is a story that comes up a lot: a group of people deciding that they have been abandoned enough times that they have to enact justice their own way. We thought the story would be better known over here [in America], but we’ve still got people going “How the hell did you find out about this story” or “How did you make up this story?”

I think this version of events could only have taken place in the US. The stuff about firearms and the justice system being very prone to manipulation are uniquely American. In the UK, those things get a sort of wry laugh. Here, there’s much more of a resentment and bitterness about those things, so it’s less of a joke.

I confess I’d never heard of the story; then again, Skidmore, Missouri, is not a place that’s really on my radar as a New Yorker.
Jack: We did Google Maps it to see how long it would take to drive to Skidmore, and it was like 19 hours straight.

John Patrick Elliott: We’ve had a few people from Skidmore come to see the show, and it really takes our breath away a little bit when they’re like, “I knew all of those people.”

Jack: There was a guy early in the run here who was very nervous to meet us after the show. We thought that he was mortally offended, but he was like, “You hit the nail on the head.” He felt that the people of the town had been demonized for what they did. But he felt the show gives them an honest hearing about what they went through and why they felt they had to do what they did.

John: He was a little shaken by the whole thing. He came expecting to hate it, like, what could be worse than a play about Ken Rex that’s kind of a musical? I think he had a real experience watching it.

Were there obvious trepidations you guys had about performing this show for Americans, as opposed to in the UK?
Jack: I was nervous about doing a bunch of American accents in a room full of American theatergoers. But that’s all been fine. I think it’s about adjusting to the different reactions. In the UK, audiences were watching it and learning.  Doing it here, there’s an obvious shorthand with all the American references and culture we portray. Even if people aren’t from Missouri, they’re familiar with a lot of this stuff. It’s just a very different reaction. Isn’t it, John?

John: It’s strange trying to gauge it. People like me and Jack grew up watching American TV and films, and the culture has this faraway mythical quality. There’s all this stuff that you build up in your head of an image of the place, and the audiences we’re performing for now see it from a different perspective. We did do quite a bit of tweaking here and there, just to make it slightly less like outsiders performing for outsiders. Musically, I’ve leaned into that a little bit more, the fact that people don’t know that I’m a little boy from Yorkshire.

Well, you pull off that Wild West style very impressively.
John: I listened to a lot of American folk music when I was growing up. I’m Irish, and my Irish family played a lot of music sitting around in pubs, and that stuff is like a lot of Americana and bluegrass music. There’s a huge cultural crossover there. That was kind of my way in. I listened to a lot of film scores, as well. We wanted it to have a slight Wild West feel in parts, so Ennio Morricone was my guy when it comes to that stuff. And then there’s an electronic element. The texture of the music is acoustic Americana and bluegrass, but electronic sounds are fed into that, which allow it to be performed by one person making this massive sound.

Jack, which character was the hardest for you to get the hang of, or the one that took the longest to work out in a way that you could sustain it for eight shows each week?
Jack: All the characters were based on a germ of truth. We found this 60 Minutes documentary from the ’80s where the presenter goes to Skidmore and speaks to most of the core characters. That was an incredible resource. I kind of based the core of each character on what I saw in that, but then I had to push them, all in different directions to make them distinct enough, physically, and vocally, so that the audience are completely clear about who’s talking at any one point. That was a collaboration between me and Ed and our movement director, Sarah Golding, very early on in rehearsals.

I was always very conscious about making the women feel real and truthful, not just sort of drag. Therefore, Trena probably. Trena was the hardest one to find, and I’m pleased with where we landed. She emerges as a fascinating character, because her journey is incredible: she’s a 14-year-old girl who is essentially kidnapped by Ken, radicalized, and turns into his sort of ally and protégé, the Bonnie to his Clyde. And then she is ultimately the moral dilemma at the end of the play, as well.

What have you noticed about the audience reaction in New York, compared to London?
Jack: There’s more unpredictability in New York. You never know what’s going to happen, which keeps us on our toes.

John: There’s a moment in the play that always makes the audience gasp as one. You hear this audible sound from the audience. We had it in the UK, as well, but here it has been even more vocal. The other night, somebody went “Oh, for God’s sake!” I love how much people respond here vocally and get involved. We enjoy that as performers because this show is all about the audience’s imagination meeting you halfway. The show only works if the audience uses their imagination. When things like that happen, you know that it’s working. You’re experiencing this act of collective imagination together.