Torben Betts's new conspiracy play Speculations, directed by Trevor Nunn at the Marylebone Theatre, rehashes hoary old theories about Marilyn Monroe and JFK being killed by the Mob in three clumsy, exposition-freighted conversations. The show follows hot on the heels of Who Killed Marilyn? in August, which received zero stars from this critic.
A Talkathon with Familiar Theories
The main conversation involves showbiz journalist turned investigative journalist Dorothy Kilgallen, played by Janie Dee. Set in 1965, young black woman Flo (Gloria Obianyo) seeks work babysitting Dorothy's young son to help her mother care for her brother, who is suffering post-Vietnam PTSD. Dorothy promptly reels off the entire thesis of her new manuscript, unveiling shadow ties between the Kennedys, organised crime, Cuba, JFK's supposed killer Lee Harvey Oswald, and Oswald's own killer Jack Ruby.
Increasingly drunk on vodka, Dorothy swings between publish-and-be-damned bravado and cringing terror, especially once threatening phone calls escalate into a brick through her French doors. Flo changes as the explanatory dynamics demand, one moment a shining-eyed true believer in Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr, the next opining that all politicians are alike.
Marilyn and Oswald Strands
The side walls of Dorothy's apartment pivot to reveal Marilyn Monroe's bedroom, where her second Kennedy lover, Robert, tears up the place looking for diaries detailing his plan to poison Fidel Castro. He strobes through fury, anguish and lust, while she monologues that she's not really sex-bomb Marilyn but “Norma Jean Mortensen, the little lost girl nobody ever wanted”.
A third revolve spins the rear wall to reveal a nightclub, where Carlos Marcello (Ferdy Roberts) recruits frustrated communist Lee Harvey Oswald (Joseph Potter) for a special job. “Are you actually asking me to help assassinate the President of the United States of America?” Oswald shouts at one point.
Extraneous Detail and Verdict
Betts includes all sorts of extraneous detail, from the destabilisation of Guatemala's banana economy to the ballistic trajectories of the Dallas shooting. Lee Newby's set is a redeeming grace. The critic saw the show the night before its opening and doubted that 24 more hours made it any better. Runs to 17 Jan at marylebonetheatre.com.
