Following a critically acclaimed, sell-out run at alternative East End queer venue The Glory, ‘Sex/Crime’ is to transfer to Soho Theatre from Tuesday 21 January - Saturday 1 February, 2020
This exciting, challenging, controversial play written by and starring Alexis Gregory, co-starring with Johnny Woo,
explores sex, violence, language, fear and queerness ‘Sex/Crime’ is a dark comic queer thriller.
In a fractured and divided city, two men; ‘A’ and ‘B’, meet to recreate the killings of a famous gay serial killer; for their own pleasure…and the right price.
“Everything else is tumbling down
Falling apart
But not you and me
You and me are going to hold tight
You and me are just right”
An exciting, challenging play that explores sex, violence, language, fear, intimacy, division, power and queerness, ‘Sex/Crime’ is a controversial and shocking statement on the state of today, both a hard-hitting ‘in ya face’ drama and an outrageous comedy.
Following a sell-out run at alternative East End queer venue, The Glory, in 2018, ‘Sex/Crime’ now transfers to Soho Theatre, Upstairs from 21 January 21 to 1 February, 2020.
Press night: Wednesday 22 January at 7.15pm.
‘Sex/Crime’ is written by playwright and performer Alexis Gregory whose recent self- performed slow show ‘Riot Act’ played to great acclaim in the West End, Arcola Theatre and on a UK tour. It heads out on another UK tour in February 2020. Gregory acts in the piece opposite celebrated alternative drag legend Jonny Woo in a rare acting role
Olivier Award winning lighting designer Mike Robertson returns to light the production. It is directed by multi award-winning theatre and opera director Robert Chevara. Produced by Alexis Gregory and Emmerson and Ward.
Robert Chevara said: “‘Sex/Crime’ is a mixture of treacle-black humour, insanity and life at the edge of delirium. It’s also a powerful statement on how we all live today and the isolation which pushes us to the extremes of experience. It’s an atomic bomb of theatrical power, daring and the pursuit of desire and fulfilment at any cost. Hilarious. Dangerous. Tragic.
Alexis Gregory
Alexis Gregory is a London-based playwright, performer and producer. His plays have been performed in theatres and a variety of alternative performance spaces and include his debut, the immersive ‘Slap’ directed by Rikki Beadle-Blair MBE (Theatre Royal Stratford East / ‘pop-up’ performances at Channel 4’s London HQ - the channel’s first ever onsite theatrical presentation / ‘Concrete’ in Shoreditch), ‘Safe’ (Soho Theatre - and London Theatre Workshop both directed by Robert Chevara / Reading Rep / Norwich Theatre Royal - directed by Alexis), the sell-out critically acclaimed run of ‘Sex/Crime’ (The Glory) and his self-performed solo verbatim piece; ‘Riot Act’ directed by Beadle-Blair (Kings Head Theatre / Duchess Theatre / Arcola Theatre / 2019 UK tour and upcoming LGBT History Month tour, Feb 2020). Additional writing includes ’Bright Skin Light’ (Theatre Royal Stratford East, workshop), short plays include ‘And Where There Once Were Two’ (Arcola Queer Collective / The Bunker) directed by Lynette Linton, ‘Freak’ (Bush Theatre), ‘Orlando, Judy Garland and the Fierce Children of the Light - In Response to the Orlando Attack’ (St James Theatre, Studio). He is published by Oberon Books and gigs all over the UK presenting extracts from his work, often at Polari, the LGBT literary salon that he is a regular guest reader at (Southbank Centre / UK tour / various ‘pop-ups’) and at venues as diverse as 20th Century Fox HQ, Science Museum, Waterstones Piccadilly, Dean Street Members Club, Heaven nightclub, National Theatre’s Riverside Stage, The Glory, Vogue Fabrics and the legendary LGBTQ+ bookstore ‘Gays The Word’. Recent additional acting credits include the co-lead in short ‘Mankind’ (2019, Flare, Raindance and several international festivals) and a guest role over several episodes of LGBT web-series ‘The Grass Is Always Grindr’ which recently received a cinema screening and broadcast on London Live.
Jonny Woo
Jonny Woo is one of London’s most celebrated alternative cabaret artists. Having cut his teeth back in the early 2000’s in New York, he returned home to fashion himself a scene in East London upon which to develop his inimitable performance style. Anarchic and unpredictable. Confrontational and unapologetic. Jonny Woo packs his shows with original songs, stories, tongue twisters and lip-syncs. Unequivocally English, Jonny Woo entertains with an addictive charm and personality. Jonny has been creating work in London for over a decade. He has been resident at Soho Theatre, having presented eight shows with them including his infamous Gay Bingo which celebrated 10 years at The Hackney Empire last October. He has had work commissioned by The Royal Opera House, The Institute Of Contemporary Arts and The Royal Festival Hall. He has been the host of London music festival Lovebox for five years and heads The Downlow at Glastonbury every year. He has been accredited with kick-starting the queer performance scene in East London and recently presented his show, ‘The East London Lecture’ about local gentrification at The Rose Lipman Building and at Shoreditch Town Hall. He most recently launched his show ‘TRANSFORMER’, a rock show based on the music from Lou Reed’s album, which premiered at The Edinburgh Festival and went onto The Soho Theatre, acted in a radical staging of Edgar Allan Poe’s ‘Tell Tale Heart’ (The Glory), created and hosted Hackney Empire’s ‘The Un-Royal Variety Show’ and he is currently international touring the show ‘Night At The Musicals’ across Australia and his ‘Jonny Woo’s All Star Brexit Cabaret’ has been performed at London Coliseum, Soho Theatre and Edinburgh Festival. He has his own performance pub, The Glory that opened December 2014 and for the last three summers The Glory has partnered with the National Theatre for a riverside ‘takeover’ - also created and hosted by Jonny.
Robert Chevara (Director)
Robert Chevara is a multi award-winning theatre and opera director. He was the recipient of a cultural study award from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, Japan, as well as a Churchill Fellowship award. He won the Prudential award for his production of ‘Carmen’ (Mid Wales Opera) and best contemporary opera production for Tom Adès’s ‘Powder Her Face’ (Stockholm). This year, his production of Philip Ridley’s ‘Vincent River’ had a highly successful run at The Park Theatre and transfered to Trafalgar Studios to great critical acclaim. He also directed Gail Louw’s controversial play ‘Blonde Poison’ at Brotfabrik in Berlin in its German premiere, plus a double bill of contemporary British operas in Amsterdam for the Dutch National Opéra Academy. Both garnered huge critical success. At the beginning of this year he also directed a double bill of Puccini operas at the Royal Northern College of Music. His production of Tennessee Williams’s ‘In the Bar of a Tokyo Hotel’ starring Linda Marlowe at Charing Cross Theatre was named by The Times as one of the 10 best productions of 2017. In 2016 he directed the Danish premiere of Mike Bartlett’s ‘Cock and Bull’, Britten’s opera ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ (Copenhagen Opera Academy) and the world premiere of Alexis Gregory’s ‘Bright Skin Light’ (Theatre Royal Stratford East). He has also collaborated with Alexis on ‘Safe’, a play about LGBT homeless youth, at Soho Theatre and London Theatre Workshop. In 2013 his production of Tennessee Williams’s ‘Vieux Carré’ also won Best Revival of a Play Award from Front Row Dress. Numerous theatre productions include Williams’s early piece ‘The Chorus Girl Plays’ (world premiere - Tennessee Williams Festival, Provincetown), the world premiere of Lionel Bart’s musical ‘Quasimodo’ (Kings Head Theatre); and ‘The Glass Menagerie’ (TheatreSpace, London); ‘As You Like It’ (English Theatre Berlin); ‘Fair!’, a play with music, which he co-devised with young offenders at Bullwood Hall Maximum security prison for the National Youth Theatre; Caryl Churchill’s ‘Top Girls’ (Hau Theatre, Berlin); Paul Doust’s ‘Hotter than Rochester’ (Paines Plough); JM Barrie’s ‘Mary Rose’; ‘Hamlet’ and Strindberg’s ‘Easter’ (all TheatreSpace, London); ‘Eva Peron’ and ‘The Four Twins’, two one-act plays by Copi (BAC). Robert’s first book was published by Oberon. He has written several opera libretti and he has many poems published in magazines and journals. Future plans include ‘Anthony and Cleopatra’ in Beijing and a new opera in Amsterdam.
Alexis Gregory and Emmerson and Ward
present
SEX / CRIME
by Alexis Gregory
directed by Robert Chevara
Soho Theatre, Upstairs
21 Dean Street
Soho
London W1D 3NE
21 January to 1 February 2020
Press night
Wednesday 22 January at 7.15pm
nightly at 7.15 pm
Saturday matinee at 2.45 pm
Tickets:
Preview Tuesday 21 January £10
& other performances £15 / £17
Box office: 020 7478 0100
www.sohotheatre.com
Suitable for audiences
16 years and over
Contains scenes and themes of an adult nature
There will be post show discussions
after both Saturday matinees
