John Wayne Gacy, The Killer Clown: Born Evil? – theSpace @ Surgeons Hall

John Wayne Gacy the notorious serial killer, famous for the rape, torture and murder of at least 33 teenage boys in America during the 1970s. The community clown who’s home stood on the graveyard of his “alleged victims”, I use the word alleged as this word comes up multiple times throughout the show.

This is not a show that sympathizes with Gacy by any means, instead it’s a one man show that tries to tells Gacy’s story as the man himself had narrated. Using quotes from Gacy’s interviews a 50-minute-long story time has been created. We are made to question: does one begin evil or are they made to be, was Gacy really a man of multiple personalities, deluded or a monster and manipulator?

Our lead actor takes on the role of Gacy himself, donning an American Chicago accent and reading Gacy’s stories from a notebook. We discuss a childhood of abuse, allegations made, served prison time and all the while “Gacy” protests that he is a “nice guy” and that the authorities are all just out to get him. We hear the defence arguments made and details of a couple of the attacks. The defences become of course more and more improbable over time, and we are walked through the details of the first court trials. Clearly a lot of research has gone into this show, and it shows.

In concept this show should work well, after all we all seem to have a morbid curiosity in death and those who create it. The facts are interesting, and the quotes really give you an insight into who Gacy may have been as a person. Unfortunately, the effect was somewhat lost with the constant need for our lead to be reading from a script, if we want to see the pleading case of a man who suggests that he did nothing wrong, a script in hand really does serve to break the illusion. This becomes evident again when at the end of the play a young man joins the stage to read out the names of the confirmed victims of Gacy, which is followed by our lead saying that these young men will never be forgotten, it is a little contradictory to say they will not be forgotten if they have to be read out from a piece of paper.

Our lead (I was not able to find the actor’s name unfortunately) does well to give us a compelling character for Gacy, that being said as someone who has watched the actual interviews with the killer, it would benefit the actor to study Gacy’s mannerisms and tone a little more, if we are to hear the actual quotes from Gacy, we should really hear them how they were spoken. This being said the production still has a very strong story teller.

Overall, I can see what the company was going for with this show and it is interesting, the facts of the case alone can shock and appal however I do feel they have missed the mark in their delivery, this being said take the script out of the actor’s hands and the show has real potential.

Reviewer: Beth Eltringham

Reviewed: 14th August 2024

North West End UK Rating: