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Riot Act’s Alexis Gregory sits down to discuss how his savage-comic queer urban thriller, SMOKE, is inspired by real-life events and why a play dealing with the deaths of gay men, drugs, grief and more is necessary right now.
With his latest play, SMOKE, Alexis Gregory is promising “a good night at the theatre.” But he’s also offering an eye-opening experience: a chance for people to experience and engage in conversations that have tangible relevance to the gay community.
First performed at the King’s Head Theatre in London two years ago, SMOKE returns for a six-performance run at the Omnibus Theatre in Clapham between Tuesday 21 and Saturday 25 April before a nine-stop UK tour. The play, based on real-life experiences had by Gregory and other gay men, follows Alex, who receives a DM from his dead boyfriend… two years after he died. The multi-layered piece sees Alex navigate a London that will be familiar to many as he tries to get to the bottom of what’s going on, whilst tackling themes such as drugs, Chemsex, loneliness, masculinity, and grief.
“It has changed in quite subtle ways,” Gregory explains as we sit down to discuss his latest self-written one-man show directed by Campbell X. “The script has only changed a few words, but I think the staging is really changing.” The distance between performer and audience will be closed, with everyone being lit by the house lights. Gregory laughs, explaining that the removal of theatrical devices is “a device in itself.” But the creatives hope this staging will drive home the realism, making the show more of a conversation between all involved. “I like the idea that everyone’s exposed, there’s nowhere for me to hide. There’s nowhere for the audience to hide. We become one,” Gregory adds. Between the setting, the staging, tweaks to the script and more, Gregory says they’ve gone deeper this time around. “We’re giving this play a different sense of pace. We’ve got a couple more years life experience under our belt, both Campbell and I. As an actor and writer, I’m looking at the script and understanding lines in a different way now.”
Alexis Gregory in SMOKE. (Tyler Kelly)The two-year gap between runs has, naturally, allowed the play to gestate in the minds of its creators. Ideas have been fleshed out and are now more realised than before. Plus, everyone has weathered another two years of life, and all that experience – the good, the bad, the ugly – has fed into SMOKE now. “Most people don’t even think about things like that, but it’s really true,” laments Gregory. As well as the loss of multiple gay men, deaths which can be attributed to a number of causes including drugs, Chemsex, and suicide, Gregory has lost family and friends. And while the play focuses on Alex’s deceased boyfriend, grief in any circumstance is relatable. As Gregory notes, it can be for one person or a whole generation. “In the play, Alex says, ‘I’m 44 years old.’ That’s a statement. If you’re a gay man and you’re being open about being that age, have a think about that. Maybe Alex is proud of making it to 44, because of all these stories about previous generations who didn’t make it to 26 because of, for example, HIV and AIDS. I was thinking today about older trans people. Where are our trans elders? We have these gaps in queer society and the significance of surviving as a queer person is different, to me, to surviving as a straight person. It’s harder.”
Gregory makes a salient point. Mental health challenges among the LGBTQ+ community are a well-researched area. And despite whatever progress we’d like to think we’ve made, stigma and shame persist. Last year, The Office for National Statistics (ONS) reported that the risk of suicide among some in the LGB+ community is more than twice that of non-queer people, the same also being said of self-harm. Currently, the ONS does not appear to collect the same data regarding the trans community. However, The Good Law Project reported earlier this year via a Freedom of Information request that 46 trans children are recorded to have taken their own lives between 2019 and 2025, 22 happening in 2021/2022. In London alone there are three suspected Chemsex deaths a month, according to the College of Policing, while there are conflicting statistics regarding deaths connected with Gamma-Hydroxybutyrate (GHB). Gregory is keen to note that not all of this is related to shame and stigma, but it’s hard to deny it’s been a contributing factor for a very long time.
“The show is a conversation between me and the audience. This really does feel like a conversation. There probably will be some points when audience members might respond and speak to me,” Gregory says of what he wants SMOKE to be. “We’ll open up conversations not just about drugs and unexplained deaths and grieving. There is so much in the play,” he continues referencing his character’s internalised homophobia exhibited towards someone in the story. “There’s lots in it.”
Gregory is speaking to me on Zoom from his rehearsal room in Elephant and Castle, an area in London that is becoming increasingly popular amongst the queer community. The connection is not lost on him. “There’s stuff going on 150 feet from me probably.” Being familiar with the world Alex inhabits, from his own experiences as well as those of others, Gregory found it easy to access Alex. “Alex is not an alien to me,” he says plainly. “Everything is based on what I’ve witnessed or what I’ve experienced. And characters like Alex are living in extreme worlds and they will do whatever they want.” Gregory worked in gay bars in the nineties. He’s been on the scene since he was 17; he knows the score. He’s seen people use and abuse drugs and the fallout, the psychotic episodes, all of which he draws on for Alex. “When I was writing the character of Alex, I realised he could do absolutely anything, which was freeing. I didn’t know when I started writing this play what Alex would get up to over the course of the hour that he spends with the audience.”
A few things happened to make Gregory put pen to paper to create SMOKE. First, he was hacked, his social media accounts, his eBay, Apple ID all dug into in what appeared to be a coordinated effort. At the same time Gregory witnessed “more and more” posts about young gay men dying. It wasn’t new to him, but it felt different. “It was the assumption as well that I think many of us as queer people make – it’s drugs, or it’s mental health or suicide, or it’s suicide because of the drugs. And often that is correct. Sometimes it’s not. You can see between the lines and see on social media what it really was,” he shares. “I added in the line, ‘we’ve been dying for decades’ because quiet survival is so challenging. It’s challenging to reach a certain age as a queer person. And this idea that now we live in this utopia, and we’re not allowed to speak about our challenges doesn’t really fit with me. So, the wider climate at the moment is not welcoming of queer people.”
Alexis Gregory in SMOKE. (Tyler Kelly)Gregory is clear it’s not just about Chemsex, though he recognises that it is also a big issue we need to tackle. There’s a wider conversation around drugs, mental health and support that needs to be had. He recalls going on a date with someone who told him he was in recovery. “And then he left me alone in the cinema for twenty minutes. I know he was off doing something. And he sadly died a few years later. There’s lots of these people have made their way into the play. I know a lot of people who passed away. And it’s the normalisation of that as well. We all go, ‘Oh, that’s what happens to queer people’.”
The production has partnered with the LGBTQ+ non-profit, You Are Loved, an organisation aiming to tackle the root causes behind suicide and drug misuse in the LGBTQ+ community, to create a series of panel discussions. Each will centre on a different issue included in the play with Gregory saying each will be “a space for people to unwind, to hear interesting thoughts, to express their own thoughts.” It’s also a chance to counter those questioning the need for something like SMOKE. “Some people have seen it and thought that it was unbelievable,” Gregory tells me. “To need the validation from an organisation is a shame, but often queer people don’t want to discuss these things.”
Gregory blames “respectability politics” for this. The idea that as we’ve been accepted as a community we must refrain from presenting ourselves in a negative light is self-centred and detracts from finding solutions for the issues ailing those around us. The view that ‘why has this play been written if it’s not for me and it’s not reflecting me?’ is a dangerous one as it risks shutting down vital conversations such as those Gregory is hoping to contribute to with SMOKE. “Of course, not all queer men are out taking drugs, getting into trouble like Alex. But it is happening,” he adds.
Gregory is unfazed by people’s discomfort with the play and its content. “It’s opening up people’s eyes to the story,” he says as we draw the conversation to a close. If anything, it bolsters the need for SMOKE.
SMOKE is playing at the Omnibus Theatre, London from Tuesday 21 – Saturday 25 April. Tickets are available here. For details of the tour, click here.
