REVIEW: SPECULATIONS @ MARYLEBONE THEATRE

🎭 Speculations

📍 Marylebone Theatre, 35 Park Road, Marylebone, London, NW1 6XT

🗓 Wednesday 4th November 2026

⭐️ 2 Stars

ALL REVOLVE, NO RESOLVE

Anyone who knew me in my twenties will know that I had a slight obsession with the icons who featured towards the end of the Golden Age of Hollywood, specifically Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, and Elvis Presley. My flat at the time was quite literally filled to the brim with memorabilia of the three. So, with that in mind, last night I headed down to the Marylebone Theatre for SPECULATIONS, a brand-new play by Torben Betts that looks at some of the conspiracy theories surrounding the death of Marilyn Monroe, as well as John F. Kennedy, Lee Harvey Oswald, and the famed journalist Dorothy Kilgallen.

Set in a tense, claustrophobic New York apartment in 1965, the plot kicks off when a young woman named Flo arrives to interview for a babysitting gig for Dorothy’s son. Little does she know, she’s walking straight into a hotbed of political paranoia. Dorothy is deep in the trenches of writing an explosive exposé, piecing together a dangerous puzzle that connects the underworld, Hollywood, and the Kennedy dynasty. As the evening unfolds, the apartment becomes less of a home and more of an interrogation room, where secrets are spilled, threats are made, and the looming danger outside starts knocking very loudly on the door. It’s a premise that promises a gripping psychological standoff.

The star rating at the top will indicate that I was quite disappointed with this play, but let's begin with something that did work really well, and that was the set design by Lee Newby. It was immediately striking. It features a sleek, rotating structure that seamlessly shifts us between different spaces, and even though you could see exactly how it was going to work from the get-go, it was executed rather well and gave the production a polished visual framework.

Unfortunately, the biggest thing that let down this show was perhaps the most important thing of all, and that was the writing. The concept here is ripe for high drama and gripping tension, but I found these things to be severely lacking. There seemed to be no urgency in the scenes at all - everything had the exact same melancholy tone to it. There was absolutely no light or shade in the piece, meaning it became stale rather quickly.

Only about 30% of the story is based on historical truth, while the remaining 70% is rooted in theories and guessing games. This basically gave Betts artistic licence to really deliver something sensational, but nothing of substance ever came. Beyond the sluggishness, I also struggled with the realism of the setup. I really wondered whether a sharp, seasoned journalist like Dorothy would've genuinely confided so much dangerous, top-secret information in a complete stranger who had just arrived at her house to babysit.

The show is further let down by the direction. With someone like Sir Trevor Nunn steering the ship, you'd think it should have been in a safe pair of hands, but everything felt quite unnatural. The trouble was that even though the set was quite impressive, it left a big empty space right in the middle to facilitate those scene changes. Because the scenes were almost entirely two-handers, the characters were constantly marooned far away from each other at opposite sides of the stage. Furthermore, the actors clearly needed to be in very set locations at the end of each scene just to make sure they were standing on the revolve for the next transition, meaning the blocking felt incredibly clunky and wooden.

When the interval came, I felt as if I'd been sat in my seat for a lot longer than the hour runtime of the first act. I prayed for something big to happen in act two, but I was unfortunately left wanting. The lost potential in this piece is genuinely breathtaking. To be fair, the pace in act two was slightly better and the scene transitions felt a bit slicker. But when Dorothy muttered a line about wanting to live long enough to go to the theatre and complain about the second act, I couldn't help but chuckle and wonder what her thoughts would have been about this actual show.

Marilyn Monroe would have celebrated her 100th birthday in June, and over the past year there has been a variety of different theatre shows about her life and death, but none of them have really had any substance to them. SPECULATIONS sadly joins this ever-growing list of shows that fail to deliver a production that does her justice. Perhaps if she were alive today, her song "I Wanna Be Loved By You" would have been about the writers trying to tell her story on stage!

Thankfully, there was a saving grace in the production's cast. My absolute favourite performance came from Joseph Potter as Lee Harvey Oswald. Oswald is not someone we know an awful lot about in terms of day-to-day personality, but I loved Potter's characterisation, which he delivered with utter believability and an unsettling edge. Another standout for me was Gloria Obianyo as the babysitter, Flo. She brought a beautiful, grounded presence to the stage, serving as a brilliant sounding board and anchoring the reality of the play even when the script started spinning out into absurd territory.

I struggled with Janie Dee's portrayal of Dorothy somewhat, as I just didn't believe she felt the genuine mortal danger that the character was supposed to be facing, and Jolyon Coy's accent seemed to fade in and out somewhat. Overall, though, the cast did their absolute best with the somewhat lacklustre material.

On the technical side, I do love a good lighting design, but here it just felt very basic and did nothing to enhance the dramatic, shadowy on-stage action. Teamed with a fairly colourless costume design, and what I've already said about the writing, it just amounted to an overall drab night at the theatre.

Ultimately, SPECULATIONS squanders a fascinating historical premise with sluggish pacing and flat writing that even a dedicated cast can't save. It’s a beautifully designed puzzle that unfortunately forgets to bring the thrill.

Performances continue at Marylebone Theatre until Sunday 17th January, so there's plenty of time to see it and make up your own mind. CLICK HERE to learn more about the show and to book tickets.

Neill Kovacic-Clarke

All views are my own and I pride myself on being honest, fair and free from influence. Theatre is subjective and it is important to remember that all views expressed are just those of one person.

My ticket for this performance of Speculations was gifted by Bread and Butter PR, who invited me to watch the show in exchange for my honest review. The fact that my ticket was gifted played no part in the content of my review or the star rating given.

CAST:

Janie Dee as Dorothy Kilgallen; Gloria Obianyo as Flo Jackson; Natalie Dunne as Marilyn Monroe; Jolyon Coy as Robert F. Kennedy; Joseph Potter as Lee Harvey Oswald; Ferdy Roberts as Carlos Marcello

CREATIVES:

Writer - Torben Betts; Director - Sir Trevor Nunn; Set and Costume Designer - Lee Newby; Lighting Designer - Johanna Town; Sound Designer - Gregory Clarke; Associate Director - Natalie Simone; Fight and Intimacy Director - Yarit Dor; Accent Coach - Aundrea Fudge

RUNNING TIME (approx):

2 hours 20 minutes, including interval

CONTENT WARNINGS:

Real-life deaths of American historical icons; Depictions and discussions of murder, political corruption, and the criminal underworld; Sudden loud noises

AGE GUIDELINE:

12+

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