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The actor and writer dives into his recent adaptation of Hollinghurst’s 2004 Man Booker prize-winning novel and how he’s never completely off the clock.
It’s May 2021. I’ve not long moved to London, lockdown restrictions are easing and once desolate spaces are filled with life again. We’re back. Furthermore, I’m back at the theatre, the Duchess Theatre to be specific, and my excitement is enough to override the frustration of people cutting the queue.
The whole theatre is buzzing, a palpable sense of anticipation ripples through the audience as they take their seats. The lights dim and it all feels so much more magical than it used to. Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Then, a man walks onstage, and a new magic takes over as Jack Holden, single-handedly inhabiting the souls of some 20 odd people, leads us through a tale of the hedonistic 1980s and the Aids crisis brought to life in an electrifying and heart pounding spectacle. This is Cruise.
Jasper Talbot as Nick in The Line of Beauty. (Photography by Johan Persson)The time period is one Holden has revisited with his latest work, The Line of Beauty. An adaptation of Alan Hollinghurst’s 2004 Man Booker Prize-winning novel, the play is currently enjoying a sold out run at the Almeida Theatre and has received a plethora of rave reviews, many highlighting Holden’s ability to succinctly distil a 400-page novel about class, identity, and you guessed it, beauty, into a two-act play.
Naturally, the process of adapting one of his favourite books was “a huge undertaking,” Holden shares it involved a ruthlessness that he maybe wasn’t prepared for at the outset. “You have to cut out so much, amalgamate characters, lose beloved characters… it’s quite a tense process.”
A common note among the reviews is the show’s relevancy to the current state of life in Britain. Both the book and the play considers their themes in the context of a rapidly changing Britain, examining society’s at times delicate and easy to exhaust tolerance, as is just visible today. As Holden notes, the 80s was the crucible of much of the world we inhabit today, and the similarities between the media’s approach to gay people then and trans people now is just one painful similarity.
Leo Suter as Toby and Jasper Talbot as Nick. (Photography by Johan Persson)Holden was commissioned to write his adaptation as the country transitioned from a Conservative government to a Labour, a change that then felt so monumental but now feels negligible in some regards. And even though the story concerns a young man, Nick Guest, and his experiences with the family of a Tory MP, Holden is adamant it’s just as resonant under a Labour government. “I’m pleased that it’s landed now and has an extra relevance, but mainly, I was dying to tell the story whenever I could,” he says.
The idea to adapt one of his favourite books came while visiting Highgate Ponds, where some of the book’s most iconic scenes take place, with a friend. They began to wonder how you’d stage one moment which led to questioning how you’d adapt the whole book. “By no means was it a guarantee that it would [work].” But after creating a new structure, rearranging a few things he was convinced. Fortunately, the Almedia, and later Michael Grandage, agreed.
As for what Hollinghurst has had to say about the adaptation, “I had complete confidence [in Jack]” the author told an audience during a recent Q&A with Holden and the Almedia’s Head of Programming & Literary, Stephanie Bain. Commenting on working with Hollinghurst, “our best living gay writer,” Holden said it was “a thrill to have my homework marked by Alan Hollinghurst,” referencing in particular the author correcting his French.
Jack Holden in Ken Rex. (Photography by Manuel Harlan)The second time I saw Holden’s work was earlier this year when he brought Ken Rex, fresh off a successful run in Sheffield, to the Southwark Playhouse. Once again Holden embodied another 20 or so people in a gripping Netflix style documentary-drama about Ken Rex McElroy, a man who terrorised the rural town of Skidmore, Indiana for 10 years until his death in 1981. Co-created with Ed Stambollouian, it’s an exhilarating production and cements Holden’s status as a force to be reckoned with. So far, it’s earned him the Best Performance in a Play award at the UK Theatre Awards and it’s returning to London in December for eight weeks at The Other Palace.
The Line of Beauty sees Holden relinquish control, a change from also performing Cruise and Ken Rex, that he’s found “interesting” but “good for me.” Having done everything in the earlier productions, “I’ve got I’ve got my feel of performing,” Holden adds. “I don’t necessarily need to be in everything,” he says admitting, also, he may not be the right person to embody Nick.
I’m fairly new to Hollinghurst myself. I tried The Swimming Pool Library once and didn’t stick with it long enough to fall in love. In search of a new novel a couple of months back a friend recommended Our Evenings, Hollinghurst’s latest, and I was blown away. The author’s ability to capture sensations, feelings, thoughts, emotions, and sensory experiences in such a specific and relatable way was a revelation.
Jack Holden.“He’s not afraid of expressing experiences and emotions that are, I’d say, pretty unique to queer people in a very overt, bold and blunt way, but also wrapped in incredible lyricism and beauty,” Holden offers as to what drew him in when he read his first Hollinghust (The Swimming Pool Library). “He doesn’t shy away from the dark and the tragic, he fills it with so much joy, beauty, and love at the same time.” He continues, “The sex definitely appealed to me. But that is in among some incredible prose, incredible characters. He’s just a master of his craft.”
Holden counts Russell T Davies as a mentor having also been inspired by Queer as Folk as a teenager. Between that and being influenced by and learning from Hollinghurst on The Line of Beauty, does Holden feel he’s part of the next generation or two along from them? He’s bashfully “honoured” to be considered as such. “Of course, these storytelling giants from our community inform my work, and it’s an absolute pleasure to be mentored by them or to adapt their work. I suppose inevitably my work is taking on some of the style and themes of their work as well,” he considers. And while anyone who wants to be mentored by him would be “mad,” he’s working with people already. “That’s a really important part of the pipeline.”
Looking back at Cruise, Holden says Hollinghurst “was definitely in there” as an influence while writing his Olivier award nominated play. But so was Neil Bartlett and many more. After watching Ken Rex I went back and re-read Cruise remembering how lyrical and epic poem-like it is.
Jack Holden in Ken Rex. (Photography by Manuel Harlan)Similarly, Ken Rex, a highly choreographed piece of theatre, also has a rhythm to it. “That’s probably a good assessment,” says Holden. “I definitely love either literal music in a piece I’m writing or for music to rise up through the text. I don’t want completely everyday language. I want something elevated, something special, and theatrical.”
Little has changed with Ken Rex (“a new tiny tweaks”) though with a bigger venue than the cosy charm of the Southwark Playhouse the sound and lighting teams have more to play with. “With the hyper theatrical moments in the show we can really lift the lid, and it was already so electric in the Southwark Playhouse,” Holden says. It’s a fascinating story partly because it’s made up of both fact and fiction and McElroy’s death remains an unsolved case which attracted Holden and Stambollouian to it. “And because it’s set in America,” Holden picks up. “We felt that would be good for the genre. There are so many articles, documentaries, TV movies, and podcasts about it. It didn’t feel exploitative.”
Both Ken Rex and Cruise are soundtracked by John Patrick Elliot, the only other person onstage with Holden. “It’s so evocative,” Holden beams of Ken Rex’s soundtrack which us available to stream. For weeks after seeing the production in February I was singing the original song, “Coyote Catch Me.” Holden picks up. “It gets me excited for the project again because when you’re duetting basically with John every night it’s a real pleasure and I know it completely transports audiences as well.”
Jack Holden in Ken Rex. (Photography by Manuel Harlan)As if Holden wasn’t busy enough, he’s also writing a new book for Taboo, the Boy George musical. The musical will see Holden to the familiar setting of 1980s London. Holden can’t say too much on it right now but teases a “new version of the show” for a 2025 audience. Add to that the success of Holden’s 2025 Edinburgh Fringe jukebox-musical, Club NVRLND, a new interpretation of the classic Peter Pan story, as well as recently being named among this year’s Brit List, and all in all it’s been a good year for him.
How’s he holding up? “Errr, a bit exhausted,” he concedes. “I’m telling myself to enjoy it because it’s exactly what I dreamed of. There’s a lot, but I’m trying not to overdo it.” The key, he says, is looking for “analogue” experiences; concerts, walks with his partner and hunkering down in a cosy pub. Though, new ideas are never too far away. “It’s a virtuous cycle, isn’t it? You think, ‘I’m going to not think about writing today.’ You walk into like a pub and then there’s a conversation happening that you can’t help overhearing and then you go, ‘they’d be good characters.’”
Ken Rex is playing at The Other Palace from 3 December 2025 to 1 February 2026. Book tickets here.
