With a muddled, mashup medley of familiar songs, I wanna by loved by you, Goodbye Norma Jeane, Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, Marilyn appears with her curly mass of platinum blonde hair and wrapped up in a bathrobe.
‘I’m dead, in heaven,’ she announces to the audience, apologising for not wearing a dress to show off her voluptuous curves.
This play is described as ‘A fresh show that celebrates Marilyn Monroe .. peaks (sic) into the life … of how she turned from the young Norma Jeane into a Hollywood icon .. and challenge the way Monroe has been portrayed by the media after her death.’
The story of the most iconic sex symbol of the 20th century is briskly narrated as a Wikipedia biography of Monroe’s life: the timeline of birth, foster families, orphanage, school, modelling, marriages, auditioning for Fox studios, Hollywood and list of movies, Gentleman Prefer Blondes, Niagara Falls, (sic) Misfits, et al. She only has two concerns about how her image has been portrayed since her death – the controversial Netflix film Blonde and that the skin-tight, sequined gown in which she dazzled at President Kennedy’s birthday party has been borrowed without her permission - Kim Kardashian ‘has been wearing my dress!’
Curiously, there’s no mention of the circumstances of her tragic death, press coverage and constant flurry of real crime TV documentaries, well researched books and media articles debating whether it was ‘probable suicide’ or murder. At the Edinburgh Fringe 2018, The Marilyn Conspiracy was a chilling, thrilling play, dramatising in meticulous detail the extensive cover-up of the crime scene at her bungalow when her body was found nude in bed, clutching a telephone, an empty bottle of sleeping pills nearby.
Performed by Olivia Denton in clichéd manner with a breathy, husky voice lacking any sense of theatricality, merely standing to recite the bare, basic facts with no fresh interpretation. This frothy, frivolous, unimaginative, 35 minute show simply focuses on Marilyn’s glamorous life, on and off screen, as a romantic fairy tale with a happy ending.
Showtimes:
Dates: 15 – 19 August @ 19:15
Ticket prices: £ 8 (£7)
Age guidance: 12 +
https://tickets.edfringe.com/whats-on/norma