A new theatrical production at London’s Marylebone Theatre dives into 1960s conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Marilyn Monroe. Directed by Trevor Nunn, Torben Betts’s playSpeculationscenters on real-life American journalist Dorothy Kilgallen, portrayed by Janie Dee, as she types away on her investigation into high-level political cover-ups and organized crime. But it is still too convenient a plot device that someone as shrewd as Kilgallen would explain all her theories to a complete stranger. Eliciting strong performances from the cast which never seem like tacky imitations, director Trevor Nunn creates a smoothly oiled production nonetheless. But all the machinery seems to try too hard to paste over the play’s limitations.
Set in the 1960s, the drama follows Kilgallen’s belief that President John F. Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy (played by Jolyon Coy), were implicated in Monroe’s death at age 36 in bed. Kilgallen’s work was intended for an unpublished manuscript alleging links between government secrecy and underworld figures. She argues, led to Monroe’s death aged 36, her investigations form part of an unpublished book which suggests links between a political cover-up and underworld crime that.
The play’s narrative unfolds as Kilgallen receives a threatening call from a stalker just before her babysitter, an aspiring African American journalist named Flo (Gloria Obianyo), arrives. Kilgallen takes Flo under her wing, using their conversations as a frame for flashbacks. Flo views the Kennedy brothers as essential figures for civil rights progress, yet Kilgallen confides her intricate theories to the newcomer anyway. It feels static as people talk out their theories and grudges.
Slickly staged transitions move the action between Kilgallen’s drawing room and scenes depicting Monroe (Natalie Dunne) in her bedroom with RFK, alongside exchanges between assassin Lee Harvey Oswald (Joseph Potter) and mob figure Carlos Marcello (Ferdy Roberts). Dunne’s performance captures Monroe’s vulnerability, allure, and unglamourous distress, drawing comparisons to her final role inThe Misfits. A smartly dressed woman hammers away at an old-style typewriter in a drawing room. Vulnerable, angry and unglamorous yet able to turn on the allure, monroe has been played so many times that any portrayal runs the risk of cliched impersonation but Dunne is variously dishevelled.
Featuring set designs by Lee Newby that rotate seamlessly between timeframes, the production tackles less familiar historical threads, including Oswald’s ties to Marcello and Jack Ruby. However, the play leaves unanswered questions regarding Kilgallen’s own sudden death in 1965, abruptly cutting off the narrative trajectory. Rotating elegantly between timeframes, lee Newby’s set design does its own transformative thing.
