SMOKE at Nottingham Playhouse

Critically acclaimed theatre-maker Alexis Gregory (Riot Act, Duchess Theatre; FutureQueer, Kings Head Theatre) returns to the stage with SMOKE, his most daring and uncompromising work to date, confronting the hardest issues currently facing the queer community, head-on. Following a sold-out London run in 2024, this gripping show will now be touring in partnership with LGBTQ+ non-profit You Are Loved to create a two-part experience for audiences, with a post-show panel that opens up vital, local conversations around the show’s themes.

SMOKE begins with a glitch: Alex receives an Instagram DM from his boyfriend who has been dead for two years. From there, the play charts Alex’s desperate search for the truth and subsequent unravelling and explores grief, psychosis and drug use within the queer community. This fast-paced, plot-driven contemporary queer thriller, blended with savage comedy, invites audiences to fully immerse themselves in Alex’s story. With the lights up and no protective theatrical frame, performer and audience remain exposed together, taking an unflinching look at queer life in the digital era.

Written and performed by Alexis Gregory, SMOKE draws on his particularly brutal experience of an online hack and several years observing addiction and the mental health crises within the LGBTQ+ community, particularly with many young gay men in this technological age. Following his work seen in the West End, across London and internationally, SMOKE extends Gregory’s commitment to documenting hidden queer narratives with sharp wit, political urgency and emotional honesty. He is reunited with award-winning director Campbell X (Stud Life; Low Rider), whose shared interest in erased and hidden queer narratives makes this collaboration a natural fit.

Following each performance, organisation You Are Loved will host a specially curated 45-minute panel discussion which will feature local LGBTQIA+ figures and community voices. The panel will be unique to each city and explore how the themes of SMOKE intersect with real-world experiences, creating a space for collective reflection.

Writer and performer Alexis Gregory comments, I wrote SMOKE based on my own experiences and those unfolding around me. SMOKE is quite a departure for me, in style and how we stage, but I am still, as I always love to do, blending the dark humour alongside the hard-hitting in the writing. I’m so pleased to be working with SMOKE’s original director Campbell X again, whose unique worldview is inherently part of the project, and teaming up with the trailblazing You Are Loved to create a special two-part touring event for audiences across the country.

Director Campbell X comments, I jumped at the opportunity to work with Alexis as his theatre work is a powerful creative and historic document about LGBTQ lives. SMOKE delves into difficult terrain navigated by gay men in terms of grief, identity, mental health and addiction. Topics often hidden in story telling because of collective queer shame. SMOKE demands we lift the lid with dark humour and pathos to go on an emotional journey.

Founder and CEO of You Are Loved Marc Svensson comments, This partnership is not only a tour de force performance about queer mental health, addiction, and loss but also a space for local LGBTQ+ communities and allies to come together to talk, share and support each other through discussions about topics disproportionately affecting our community such as shame, loneliness, and grief.