Smoke + You Are Loved Panel – Omnibus Theatre

SMOKE is a savage queer comedy thriller. A play written and performed by Alex Gregory. spotlighted by the non-profitable charitable work of ‘You are loved’ YAL. Gregory invites you to witness his lonely intimate experience dealing with grief, addiction and psychosis a life dominated by his everyday thoughts and actions. His openness about his previous drug taking is divulged early on within the play and there is no reference to drugs and sexual content thereafter. The focus here is the aftermath of a life lived with pain, loneliness and misconceived biases.   

Alex fights with his demons and becomes activated when he ‘receives’ or ‘perceives’ an Instagram message asking “how are ru” no question mark- that is sent to his phone from his dead partner Ben. The narrative weaves its way through characterisations of whom sent this message, was it from a scammer, a ‘fake Ben’ alias a Starbucks barista employee from Acton Town to Ben’s mother, the woman who ‘disliked him’, and was ‘ashamed’ to be a mother of a gay son. Alex finds himself stalking fake, fake Ben, fighting with the police and everyone in the outside world. His motive is to get to the bottom of who would punish him with a message like this.

The flow is interrupted by periods of silence, which feels in some part misaligned. However purposeful. The staging simplistic a chair, phone and the leading character Alex who struts around the stage talking directly to his audience in a defensive style that provokes awkwardness and intent. The play got better as it moved with the story.

He celebrates the LGBTQ + community and his gayness in a way that highlights the beauty and the darkest moments of paranoia in a life that is turbulent, misunderstood and certainly misrepresented within society. This dialogue sits at the intersection of intimacy, risk, and social context. A play that raises the conversation around the silent killer ‘chemsex’. increased suicide and addiction. The YAL panel of doctors, clinicians and experts discuss this unspoken crisis to raise awareness and offer ways on how to ‘reach in’. Their challenge is how to get this message out beyond the LGBTQ+ community. This play is a positive step forward, for me a person with limited knowledge on this subject area this play was illuminating and provoked my conscience to understand, learn and reach in.      

Addiction is not a moral failing more a symptom of unmet needs, validation and escape.      

This play commences at 7.30 pm – 60 minutes followed by 45-minute panel discussion.

Run at Omnibus Theatre Clapham 21^st April – 25^th April 2026 prior to a UK Tour   

Booking link: https://www.omnibus-clapham.org/

Writer: Alexis Gregory

Directed by Cambell X

Reviewer: Michelle Knight

Reviewed 22^nd April 2026  

North West End UK Rating: