Jack Holden’s Kenrex Is Like A True Crime Podcast Come To Life

In 1981, dozens of Skidmore, Mo., residents bore witness to the murder of their local bully — but to this day, no one has stepped forward to identify who pulled the trigger. Now, the strange, relatively unknown chapter in American true-crime history is unfolding off-Broadway in a new play from two British theater creators who set out looking for a juicy story nearly a decade ago.

“We were both true crime fanatics, really. This was about the time that Serial and S-Town and Making a Murderer and The Jinx were huge,” recalls Jack Holden, the star and co-writer of Kenrex, which recently opened at the Lucille Lortel Theatre following a successful run in London. “We wondered if true crime could work onstage. And so we sort of searched around on the internet for stories that hadn’t really been covered in any of those big ways.”

The story that eventually grabbed Holden and his co-writer and director, Ed Stambollouian, was the one of Kenneth Rex McElroy. McElroy was convicted of attempted murder and accused of dozens of other crimes, including arson and statutory rape, but always managed to avoid prison. He did this in part by bullying and threatening his fellow locals, who eventually got fed up and took matters into their own hands, shooting him as he sat in his pickup truck on the town’s main street.

“The question of justice and wrong and right is intrinsically woven through the whole story, but at the end of the play we kind of have to approach it more head on,” says Holden, 36. “The end of the play changed loads and loads of times because we were like…how much do we actually get into the weeds of justice and injustice and how much do we just let the story speak for itself? And I think we found a good balance.”

Holden plays all 35 characters featured in the show, which describes itself as exploring the “thin line between justice served and justice taken.” Distinguishing each — everyone from McElroy and his wife to his lawyer and the county prosecutor — was a challenge.

“The only way we could be really clear with our storytelling was if everyone knew exactly who I was at any one moment. And we knew that I wasn’t going to do any sort of costume changes or anything between the characters,” says Holden, who won a Best Actor Olivier in April for his performance. “It all comes down to very, very clear physical gestures and vocal qualities, because most of these characters are from the same town, so their accents are not going to be that different.”

(Holden, who said it was “very nerve-racking” to perform in front of Americans for the first time, nails the delivery: At intermission, my husband was surprised to learn that the actor was British.)

Kenrex plays like a true crime podcast, wherein the audience experiences a variety of interviews and storytelling formats unfolding in front of them. And that, Holden says, is the point.

“Just like a true crime podcast, you get primary sources and then you get a bit of storytelling, then you get an interview with someone who was there,” he says. “But also, in a true crime podcast, you you hear the voices but don’t see the characters. So that all happens in your imagination. We thought if one person could do all the voices, that could work.”

On his favorite podcasts:

We were heavily inspired by Serial — the first season especially. It was a real kind of water-cooler moment, wasn’t it? We have less and less of that these days. S-Town was so atmospheric and guided us a lot, and Phoebe Judge’s podcast, Criminal — what’s really good about Criminal is that it distills big, complex, mysterious cases into really efficient storytelling in usually under an hour, and it’s really inspiring stuff.

On his pre-show superstitions:

I wouldn’t say I’m normally superstitious but when I’m running a show, my superstition level goes through the roof. I do a lot of knocking on wood and all the classic theater superstitions: I might as well just not say the name of the Scottish Play and not whistle in a theater. That always puts me a bit on edge, when someone’s whistling.

On winding down post-show:

It’s still such a fun novelty coming out of the theater and being in the heart of New York City, so I wander home and soak that all up. I can’t immediately fall asleep once I’ve done the show because I’m still buzzing quite a bit, so I try to wind down with some mindless television or a book — reality TV or something I don’t have to think about too much. I like this show we’ve got in the U.K. called LOL: Last One Laughing. It’s a bunch of comedians just trying to make each other laugh.

On his stage-door experiences:

There was a guy the other night who was from Skidmore, where the play takes place, and he said he knew all of the characters from the story. So that was quite scary meeting him — I was like, “Oh gosh, I hope he approves.” He pointed out a few inaccuracies, and I said, “Well, we know, but that’s the sort of dramatic license we took with the piece.” But he also said the story’s been covered a lot in articles and documentaries and he felt that it’d never been nailed quite right — and he felt that we had done that. So that was a real ringing endorsement.

On his acting idol:

I loved Philip Seymour Hoffman as a performer in everything he did. As I started looking into becoming an actor myself, I was like, “Oh, he’s also a theater kid and he always goes back to theater.” He was such an amazing character actor, but he could also play straight and he could also play amazingly funny characters as well. If I could be half the actor he was, I would be very happy.

On his New York City downtime:

I’m into finding the spas and saunas of New York, so I’ve been to the Russian And Turkish Baths quite a bit, and I’m adding more and more to my list to check out on my days off. It’s like a guilt-free way to relax and unwind, and it’s good for the body and the voice as well.

Our run finishes the day before the Pride March, so I think that’s going to be a natural sort of end of run party. And I want to find a good diner — I’ve spotted a few near my apartment, but if you have any recommendations, let me know.