“Blonde and beautiful Marilyn Monroe, a glamorous symbol of the gay, exciting life of Hollywood, died tragically Sunday. Her body was found nude in bed, a probable suicide. She was 36. The star clutched a telephone in one hand. An empty bottle of sleeping pills was nearby”.
- The Associated Press, August 5, 1962.
This media report describes the basic facts of Marilyn’s sudden death; its graphic image is the starting point of Elton Townend Jones’ powerful portrait of the actress.
The stage set is her bedroom – Marilyn dressed in a bathrobe is sprawled face down on the bed; a pile of books (Joyce, Miller, Becket, Keats), bottles of pills, clothes and shoes are strewn over the floor.
The phone rings and Marilyn is startled “awake” to find an audience of fans and admirers waiting to hear her final story of a remarkable life and tragically early death.
The soft, lapping of waves can be heard as she describes her love of the ocean and wonders whether she should go down to the beach.
From the moment she rolls out of bed, Lizzie Wort personifies the blonde and beautiful Marilyn: sparkling eyes, husky voice, bubbly charm, girlish giggles.
But as the stories unfold, she reveals how vulnerable and lonely she now is and a bitter tone masks the laughter.
In a pacy stream of consciousness, she shares a series of memories going back in time from Marilyn the sex goddess to the young, naïve Norma Jeane: marriages, miscarriages and affairs (“other people’s husbands”), the pressure of the movie set, (“I don’t choose to be late, stuff happens”), fractured family life, dreams and nightmares of childhood.
We watch and listen as Marilyn paces up and down like a lion in a cage. She pops a pill every few minutes, chews gum, sits, stands, fiddles with her dressing gown belt, (to the point of being rather distracting). Anxious, impatient, she waits for Robert Kennedy to return her call, jumping if the phone rings. Her mood swings up and down, infectiously joyful to dark despair.
DiMaggio, Miller, Wilder, Strasberg, Liz Taylor, Huston, Montand, Gable, Olivier, here is all the off stage gossip, loves, hates, rivalry, rejection, the gloss and glamour of Hollywood. Here on stage is her entire autobiography presented as an 85 minute play.
Elton Townend Jones has certainly been ambitious in the literary task to dramatise so much material, facts and figures, but at times the narrative feels overloaded.
In attempting to explain every experience, event and person in her life, related at full pelt, there is no space to breathe.
A little astute editing of the text and with a slower pace of action would create a tightly crafted, intimate and poetic monologue to reach the essential heart of the play's title, her unremarkable death.
But what a dazzling performance we are treated to!. Lizzie Wort captures both the agony and the ecstasy of Marilyn’s turbulent life, from superstar fame to lonely death, with passion and fizzing pizzazz.
Show times
1 - 26 August, 1.10pm (not 13)
Ticket prices
£8 - £13