SMOKE
Created and performed by Alexis Gregory
Directed by Campbell X
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You Are Loved panel.
Alex wakes one morning to a new message on Insta from his boyfriend Ben. But Ben died two years ago. What appears to be an everyday hack soon turns into something else as Alex’s life spirals out of control.
SMOKE is the newest play from acclaimed queer theatre-maker Alexis Gregory (“Riot Act”) whose work has appeared in the West End, across London, the UK, and internationally, and is directed by the award-winning filmmaker Campbell X (“Stud Life”, “Low Rider”).
Raw, and stripped back, the conversational SMOKE is a hard-hitting, savage comic-thriller about another dead gay guy on social media, drugs, the Demon Twink in Starbucks, and Mariah Carey.
Non-profit organisation You Are Loved (YAL), created in response to disproportionately high rates of premature deaths from suicide and drugs in the LGBTQ+ community, focuses on addressing the root causes, including stigma, shame and loneliness.
Post each SMOKE performance, YAL will host a specially curated forty-five minute panel, unique to each town and city on the tour, involving local LGBTQ+ figures, exploring how SMOKE’s themes crossover with YAL’s work, in mobilising the community to get better at talking, sharing and supporting each other.
SMOKE and You Are Loved tour in a unique partnership combining culture and community, presenting two interlinked events for audiences.
SMOKE image by Tyler Kelly.
Smoke is funded by Arts Council England
