Product details
- ISBN 9781350613126
- Weight: 80g
- Dimensions: 128 x 194mm
- Publication Date: 03 Dec 2025
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Paperback
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Nominated for Best New Play at the Olivier Awards 2026
Nominated for Best New Play at the Critics' Circle Theatre Awards 2026
'911, what’s your emergency?’
‘My husband... they shot him... they all did.’
July 10th, 1981, Missouri. Smalltown bully, Ken Rex McElroy rules Skidmore with an iron fist. His ten-year reign of terror has involved theft, intimidation, assault, abduction and attempted murder but, thanks to his slippery defence attorney and the rusty cogs of the American justice system, Ken has never spent a night behind bars.
But, when Ken shoots pillar of the community, greengrocer Bo Bowenkamp, and leaves him for dead, the good folk of Skidmore decide that enough is enough. If the courts won’t bring Ken to heel, they will.
KENREX is the unbelievable true story of a community taking back control — part True Crime, part Western, with a foot-stomping live Americana soundtrack.
After a smash-hit premiere at Sheffield Crucible in October 2024, KENREX later transferred to the Southwark Playhouse in February 2025. This revised and updated edition was published to coincide with the 2025/26 London run at The Other Palace.
Jack Holden is an actor and writer from London. His West End credits include the National Theatre’s War Horse and the Almeida Theatre’s Ink. He has also performed at the RSC, Bristol Old Vic and toured extensively around the UK. Cruise was his West End debut as a playwright.
Ed Stambollouian trained at the University of Manchester, and went on to an MA in Theatre Directing at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. He spent a year as Associate Director to Jamie Lloyd on the West End Trafalgar Transformed Season: The Pride, The Hothouse and Macbeth. Alongside the season Ed directed two short Pinter plays starring Andrew Scott, Joanna Lumley and Alun Armstrong. Ed then went on to direct Night School as part of the West End’s prestigious Pinter at the Pinter Season. Ed also directs comedy; most recently two award-winning shows by stand-up Joe Lycett, the Invisible Dot’s Birthday Gala at the Hammersmith Apollo and the World Tour of YouTube sensations Dan & Phil (which played sold out shows at the London Palladium, the Dolby Theatre in LA and on Broadway).
