Park Theatre | ★★★✩✩ Co-written by Vicki McKeller and Guy Masterson (who also directs) this play believes Marilyn Monroe was murdered. There were, we learn, seven friends and acquaintances at the star’s Hollywood home on the night of Monroe’s death. Yet five hours passed before one of them reported the “apparent suicide”.
They group included actor Peter Lawford (Declan Bennett), his wife Patricia Kennedy (Natasha Colenso who replaces the unwell McKeller), Monroe’s doctor Dr Hyman Engelberg (Maurey Richards) and her psychiatrist Dr Ralph Greenson (David Calvitto). Group think: Maurey Richards (left) plays Dr Hyman Engelberg All had been with Monroe to celebrate her new million-dollar movie contract with Fox, but what on earth did they talk about on the night of Monroe’s death? In heated exchanges the play imagines that the doctors saw evidence of foul play. If this became public the resulting scandal would cause the government to fall because of Monroe’s affairs with the then American president Jack Kennedy and his brother Bobby, the attorney general.
We also learn that Lawford had recently attempted and failed to bully Monroe into giving up her diary which could be deeply compromising for the brothers. Monroe refused, so Bobby, we are invited to conclude, had a motive to commit murder. Sally Mortemore as Eunice Murray Credit: NUX Photography In the flashback scenes Genevieve Gaunt is a lively and angry Monroe taking a stand against the men who bully he.
