KENREX

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 trained as an actor at Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and has participated in the Royal Court Young Writers Programme and the Channel 4 Screenwriting Course. He was recently on attachment at the National Theatre Studio. His debut play Cruise-a kaleidoscopic, musical odyssey through Soho and the AIDS crisis of the 1980s-premiered at the Duchess Theatre in Summer 2021 to widespread critical acclaim, and was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Play 2022. Its second sold-out run took place at the Apollo Theatre in August 2022, and it received its first international production in Johannesburg. Cruise premiered in Australia in February 2025, with productions in Mexico, Brazil and Uruguay forthcoming. Jack wrote the book for Club NVRLND, an immersive club musical based on J M Barrie's Peter Pan, which premiered with a sold-out run at Assembly Checkpoint, Edinburgh in Summer 2025. For the Almeida Theatre, Jack adapted Alan Hollinghurst's Booker Prize-winning novel The Line of Beauty. The production, directed by Michael Grandage, played to sell-out audiences in October/November 2025. Jack is also developing screen projects with Working Title, Independent Entertainment, World Productions, MMXX, and Michael Grandage Company. He has taken part in development writers rooms for Joi Productions and Genial. As an actor, Jack was most recently seen in John Morton's Ten Percent (Amazon) and Stefan Golaszewski's Marriage (BBC One). He has also starred in British independent films, and on stage at the National, the RSC, the Almeida, and multiple times in the West End. Jack has also produced award-winning short films. Blood Out Of A Stone premiered at BFI Flare 2018; The Rev was backed by BFI Network and premiered at London Film Festival 2022; Under The Blue has been winning awards around the world since 2024. In January 2025, Jack made his debut as writer-director with his short film Safari, produced by My Accomplice. Together, they are developing Jack's debut writer-director feature film, Man Made.