The first production photos from Speculations have arrived on the day of its press night, with Janie Dee as the columnist Dorothy Kilgallen in Torben Betts's new thriller, directed by Trevor Nunn at the Marylebone Theatre.
Wild Yak and the Marylebone Theatre have released the first pictures of Speculations in performance, timed for its press night this evening, Wednesday 4 November 2026. The photographs, by Helen Maybanks, follow the rehearsal-room images issued in October, and arrive a little over two weeks after the world premiere extended its run at the Marylebone Theatre.
Torben Betts, whose Murder in the Dark has toured the UK and Ireland, wrote the play, and Trevor Nunn directs. Its subject is the trio of deaths that has fed American conspiracy theory for six decades, those of Marilyn Monroe, President John F. Kennedy and Lee Harvey Oswald, approached through the reporter who refused to let them rest.
The photographs put Janie Dee, an Olivier Award winner for Comic Potential, at the centre as Dorothy Kilgallen, the New York columnist who, in 1965, is closing in on what she believes is the defining story of her working life. Around her are Jolyon Coy as Robert, Natalie Dunne as Norma Jean, Gloria Obianyo as Flo, Joseph Potter as Lee and Ferdy Roberts as Carlos. Several frames pair Dee with Obianyo in the cream-panelled drawing room of Lee Newby's set, while Potter and Roberts share a run of scenes across a bar table.
As Kilgallen's inquiries edge closer to an answer, the intimidation follows her home, and the question becomes what she is prepared to lose for a story others are determined to keep quiet. Lighting is by Johanna Town and sound by Gregory Clarke.
Speculations runs at the Marylebone Theatre, inside Rudolf Steiner House at 35 Park Road, until Sunday 17 January 2027, having begun previews on Friday 30 October 2026.
