- Love, Marilyn
- Rating **
A Perpetual Child
Marilyn Monroe died aged just 36 in 1962; "probably suicide" was the verdict. Since then her iconic image as a beautiful blonde Hollywood goddess has remained intact. Valerie Goodwin's play aims to tell Marilyn's tragic story of life and death as seen through her friends, film directors, lovers, husbands and personal staff. It's a huge cast list and therefore the ideal vehicle for around twenty aspiring young actors of Beaminster School, Dorset.
The story is told in retrospect with Whitey, her make up artist (a fine performance by Sean Clothier a James Dean look-alike) and Sam, her photographer, discussing the speculation surrounding her death. Selected episodes in her life are dramatised - from 15-year-old Marilyn meeting Jim, her first husband to problems on the film set when she was frequently late or indisposed. There is a germ of a strong show here but unfortunately it is so overburdened with (often) unidentifiable characters and endless scenes that the real star of the show is crowded out. Goodwin - who also directs - has done her research meticulously, so much so this is virtually a dramatised biography. Overwritten, overlong and too ambitious for this young cast it suffers from some poor acting and gabbled speech.
After one and a half hours we reach the heart of the play when Marilyn (perceptively played by Carol Fry) is sitting alone at home on that last fateful night. Surrounded by vodka bottles and pills, she phones doctors for more pills and friends for comfort. This is a touching and moving scene and beautifully illustrates her tortured personality, "a perpetual child" who just wants to be loved. As a one-woman show with just Marilyn on stage, her tape recordings, telephone, drink and drugs - now that could be a powerful self portrait.
When and Where
1/4 rm rm @ Greenside, 1b Royal Terrace. Runs to 30 August at 1.30pm every day.Vivien Devlin, August 2004
Return to Index of 2004 Fringe Reviews.
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