Eden Court

Inverness

10th May

Having seen Dyad Production’s,  Female Gothic last year, I was looking forward to see this play about the iconic film star Marilyn Monroe, which imagines her recounting her life in her last hours before her death in August 1962, aged 36. While we can only speculate to what she may have thought about in her last moments, Elton Townsend Jones went to great lengths in his research to discover the real Marilyn beneath all the rumour and sensation.

On entering the theatre we were faced with a set, not to dissimilar to Tracy Emin’s “My Bed”. After sitting down, I realised there was a figure on the bed, which lay motionless until the audience settled and the lights went down and the white sixties telephone rings, no one is on the end, just an eerie crackling …..maybe death is calling?

Despite the fact Lizzie Wort only had a slight resemblance to Marilyn she managed capture her spirit, as she frolicked across the stage in her dressing gown, popping pills and candidly telling her story of marriages to Joe DiMaggio and Arthur Miller, tales of affairs and friendships, her career and the darker days of her childhood. Lizzie did an exceptional job of portraying this complex woman. Dyad seems to be the master of monologue as yet again this was a superbly put together production, with simple storytelling that kept me captivated for the whole hour.   FOUR STARS

Reviewer : Zoe Gwynne