⭐⭐ (Two Stars)
With the true crime genre continuing to trend, based on its synopsis Speculations - written by Torben Betts and directed by Trevor Nunn - should be an intriguing theatrical offering to many potential audience members. The play considers whether there’s an alternative explanation for the high-profile deaths of Marilyn Monroe, Robert F Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald to that conveyed to the public by the media. However, the framing of this narrative and the manner in which it is executed lead to this piece feeling less like the political thriller it describes itself as, and more like poor taste fan fiction.
We meet investigative journalist Dorothy Kilgallen (Janie Dee) in her home in 1965 New York. She has just received a phone call threatening the life of her eleven-year-old son but - in what we’ll come to realise is a running theme throughout the production - displays minimal concern about this and, after calling off-stage to him to close his bedroom window, returns to writing on her typewriter. Soon after, her son’s babysitter - the only entirely fictional character in the play - Flo (Gloria Obianyo) arrives. Dorothy is clearly not too concerned with home security, as Flo is able to let herself into the apartment with no trouble at all, even though it’s later confirmed when a subsequent visitor arrives that the door is meant to be locked. With two adults now in the apartment, still neither goes to watch the endangered child. Instead, Flo lingers in the sitting room and asks an incredibly convenient series of questions that allow Dorothy to list her speculations and conspiracy theories about Monroe, Kennedy and Oswald’s deaths. We learn that she’s writing a book that she hopes to be the “scoop of the century”, but her intention to publish her theories has led to the threats she and her child have been experiencing. What follows are a series of scenes that Dorothy has imagined taking place prior to these individuals’ deaths, showing us her theories about why they actually died, interspersed between a prolonged conversation between Dorothy and Flo about the implications if Dorothy’s speculations are indeed correct.
Unfortunately the skills of a talented group of actors are not enough to lift this material into an engaging watch. Many of the scenes are unconvincing, and inconsistent accents do not help here. There also seems to be a disconnect between Betts’ script and Nunn’s direction. For example, at one point Flo tells Dorothy that she’s been looking out the window ever since Flo had arrived, when we as an audience have been with the two women the whole time and have just watched Dorothy cross the room to look out the window for the first time moments before this comment was made. And even this seemed out of character as Dorothy had shown notably little regard for the danger her child was supposedly in.
Nunn’s direction also results in a frustratingly slow pace, exacerbated by pauses between scenes while the walls of the set rotate slowly and the actors for the most part freeze. The set itself - designed by Lee Newby - is effective in creating three distinct locations (Dorothy’s living room, Marilyn Monroe’s bedroom and a Mafia-frequented bar) thanks to all three walls of Dorothy’s apartment revolving. However, these reveals do become repetitive quite quickly. There is one striking moment when all three of the walls revolve simultaneously at a faster speed than the rest of the production, which is a visual highlight of the show.
Overall, Speculations does not manage to build the tension or suspense it aspires to. There’s certainly potential to the premise but the contradictions within the production and its slow pacing make the play difficult to enjoy.
Speculations runs at Marylebone Theatre until 3rd January 2027.
Photos by Helen Maybanks