Interview: Alexis Gregory in Smoke, a queer thriller at Nottingham Playhouse

You're appearing at Nottingham Playhouse in your one-man play Smoke. What can audiences expect?

Alexis: Contemporary urban thriller meets dark comedy. My character, Alex, who purposely has a similar name to me, because we're playing with what's real and what isn't, is navigating an unusual situation. He wakes to a message on Instagram from his boyfriend Ben, who died two years previously. So, the Instagram account has been hacked, and as Alex investigates, he starts to unravel, and nothing is what it seems to be. So yes, expect an exciting, provocative, hard-hitting, funny night at the theatre,

Why did you write the play and why now?

Alexis: I actually wrote the play in 2022 but it took time to get to this stage. I wrote the play for various reasons. I was hacked that summer. They got into all of my accounts, my social media, my eBay, my PayPal. They tried to get my Apple ID. I was getting notifications that they were logging in around the world. Someone logging in in Brighton, Southampton, Texas. It was a sophisticated gang and I had to take my iPad to the Apple Store and get it wiped. It was horrific. So that partly inspired it. Also, I noticed a real increase in social media announcements about gay men dying, and obviously I'm connected to the LGBTQ+ community, I'm part of it.

Often the cause of death was not mentioned. As queer people, we often assume it's drug related or it's suicide, or suicide because the drug situation got out of hand. Everyone thinks it's terrible, but then it’s forgotten. Then it happens again and again, and I say it’s a recent thing, but really I've been seeing it for years.

So, I explore that in the play, it's implied the boyfriend’s death was drug or suicide related. An exploration of that, particularly through a queer lens, and how drugs are embedded in queer party culture.

Are you challenging any homophobic assumptions in this play?

Alexis: My character is navigating internalised homophobia. He's very mean about everyone. He's very challenging. He's been driven by grief and drugs to a dark place. He's incredibly nasty to another younger gay male character. That's internalised homophobia, but he is navigating a homophobic society, which is becoming more homophobic and transphobic, as we've seen in recent years. These things take a toll. So, Alex is someone in a marginalised community navigating wider society, and he's on edge. I think people from other marginalised communities, or people struggling day to day, can understand what that means.

He falls into the conspiracy theory trap too. I saw on social media gay men and trans women friends having psychotic episodes from drugs. And they’d film and go live with them. Rarely were they saying, 'Look, I'm having a terrible time, I'm having a really bad episode’. No, they were sharing information they believed to be true, that wasn't. They were not being followed on the bus. They would film something found on the street, saying there was a hidden message in it, and there wasn’t.

With all the vilification and bullying online, you can understand why people might feel they're being got at.

Alexis: Exactly. Well, as the play developed over time, some things I wrote about as conspiracy theory or psychosis were proved true. For example, we have a whole scene where Alex goes into a corner shop, and thinks he's following a guy he believes has stalked him. And he says, "If this even is a real shop.” Well, recent news reports claim many vape shops are not real, they're fronts. And, the Epstein files are like a conspiracy theory played out in real time. So, we're living in this age where the audience are sat there thinking, is this really happening? 

Smoke is not supposed to feel like theatre. It should feel like this guy’s walked into the space and took over, because again we're playing with reality. I love theatrical work, but I didn't want this to be theatrical. It should feel like an AA or an NA meeting.

There’s a You Are Loved panel right after your performance, could you tell us about that?

Alexis: Absolutely, You Are Loved is an LGBTQ+ organisation. They deal with similar themes to Smoke: unexpected deaths in the queer community, drug misuse, mental health, isolation. These panels have worked really well. It's a 45-minute panel, making it a two-part experience for the audience. You Are Loved curate the panel differently in each venue. There will be three or four Nottingham voices on the panel at the Playhouse, discussing the play, how it crosses over into real life. The panels are springboards for wider conversation. We might talk about being LGBTQ+ plus, and how that crosses over with class. There's been conversations about neurodiversity, about how some neurodivergent people may be drawn to drugs. The people on the panel might be experts, members of the community, people working with the LGBTQ+ community. People have really responded, and understood it's an integral part to what we're doing. Giving people a space to process what they've just seen.

Your CV, is dazzling! Writing, directing, acting, producing, is there one of those you love above all others?

Alexis: I would say acting, because it all comes together with the audience, as corny as that sounds. And it's hard work behind the scenes, but suddenly it's worth it, learning a solo play. Even though I wrote it, it's hell, two months of learning a play. But I like audiences and the interaction and engagement. The work I do is visceral, very real, very raw, always humorous, and audiences respond viscerally too. I like that connection, and with Smoke I'm bouncing off the audience, they laugh and I respond to them laughing. Sometimes even improvise with people in the audience. It really is an exchange. I'm feeling their energy, and hopefully they're feeling mine.

Was it a light bulb moment growing up when you decided to be an actor?

Alexis: I wanted to do it ever since I was a young child. I remember an external drama teacher coming into my primary school, and I remember doing some exercises, and her saying, "Oh, you're really good. I'm going to tell your mum that you did really well.” This was when kids were less media savvy, pre-internet, so I found my own acting classes on the other side of London, and my mum took me to them. I started working professionally as a teenager, so it's always been there. 

Do you have any advice for aspiring theatre actors?

Alexis: Be prepared to work hard, to make allies and forge potential relationships with collaborators. See as much theatre as you can. Look at people doing well. Sure, you can throw it all away and do your own thing, if you want, but you must understand what's going on around you. It's not just your path. You're part of something bigger. Study people doing well and reach out to them. If you like the director, contact them. Or, if you want help producing independent theatre, contact a producer you liked and build relationships. Say, "Hey, I'm creating a project, which might appeal to you. Can we have coffee?” It might take some years to work with that person, but we don't exist in isolation. Theatre is collaborative. 

What changes would you like to see for British LGBTQ+ communities in coming years?

Alexis: We're heading into incredibly regressive times, and I'm not saying that as a throwaway soundbite. Anyone keeping their eye on queer experience in the last few years would know this was coming. Politically, socially, we're heading backwards. We're seeing Pride events losing funding, and libraries cancelling Pride seasons. We're seeing echoes of Section 28 from the 80s. The trans community are on the forefront of this backlash, and we mustn’t be complacent. We need to stand up for ourselves. Again, we need to gather our allies as well, because most people are tolerant. 

The way the trans community are being treated now is how gay men and lesbians were treated in the 80s and 90s. It's no different, and we as a society look back on that as a shameful period. One day we'll look back at today in a similar way and think, how did we get there? Why were we acting like that? 

It's a very real threat. I've got trans friends literally ill with worry. It affects people's lives, so we have challenging times ahead of us. It's not just politicians. This emboldens certain people who feel like they've been pushed out. But an author doing a Pride reading in a library is not going to hurt anybody. That's not the reason why your life isn’t going how you want it to.

So, what's next for Alexis? 

Alexis: I’m going straight onto another project called Riot Act Two. I did a really successful play called Riot Act, now I'm working with the Mulwade Foundation, and we're creating a companion piece. I do two previews this summer, so I am working on the script as I complete these last dates for Smoke.

But I'm really, really, looking forward to coming to Nottingham. I've worked in about 50 different cities or towns in the UK, yet I've never been to Nottingham.

Smoke plays at the Nottingham Playhouse on Saturday 20 June 2026.