Wild Yak and the Marylebone Theatre have announced the world premiere of Speculations, a political thriller by Torben Betts directed by Sir Trevor Nunn, with Janie Dee as the journalist who refused to accept the official account of three American deaths.
Wild Yak and the Marylebone Theatre have announced the world premiere of Speculations, subtitled On the Unexplained Deaths of Several American Icons. Written by Torben Betts and directed by Sir Trevor Nunn, it runs for nine weeks only, from 30 October 2026 to 3 January 2027, with press night on Wednesday 4 November. Tickets are on general sale now.
Nunn's involvement is the headline here, and it carries some weight. He joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1964 and became its youngest ever Artistic Director four years later, running it until 1986; he was Director of the National Theatre from 1997 to 2003; he staged the original productions of Cats, Starlight Express and Sunset Boulevard, co-directed Les Miserables with John Caird, and has now directed all 37 plays in the Shakespeare canon. He was knighted in 2002.
Olivier Award-winner Janie Dee plays Dorothy Kilgallen, the American investigative journalist and television personality at the centre of the play. The setting is New York in 1965. Three years earlier Marilyn Monroe had been found dead in Los Angeles; a year after that President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas; and his suspected killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, was then shot dead on live television. America had its answers. Kilgallen did not accept them, and the play follows her as she pursues a trail that runs from Hollywood to the White House and from the Kennedy family to the New Orleans underworld, drawing in Robert Kennedy, Jack Ruby and the crime boss Carlos Marcello. The closer she gets, the more dangerous the questions become.
Trevor Nunn said: 'For my entire professional career, I have been intrigued by contradictions concerning the assassination of President Kennedy and the death of Marilyn Monroe. Now, excitingly, I have the opportunity to investigate those shocking events by directing a new play by Torben Betts called Speculations. An important American journalist, Dorothy Kilgallen, became fascinated by those contradictions and it is her speculations (as played by Janie Dee) that we follow in this gripping new play.'
Torben Betts, whose Murder in the Dark toured the UK and Ireland, said: 'I've never believed that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of JFK, and I've always found the circumstances surrounding Marilyn Monroe's death deeply suspicious. But since discovering Dorothy Kilgallen and how her investigation began to uncover possible connections between these seemingly separate deaths, I've become convinced that hers is a story that needs to be told, and I'd like to do my small part as a playwright to give a voice back to a courageous woman I believe was silenced.'
Dee is currently playing Laurence in Florian Zeller's The Truth at the Apollo Theatre, opposite Stephen Mangan. Her Olivier Award came for Comic Potential, a part Alan Ayckbourn wrote for her, and she won a second for Carousel at the National Theatre. The creative team is completed by Lee Newby on set and costume design, Johanna Town on lighting and Gregory Clarke on sound. Further casting is to be announced.
The production continues a busy relationship between producer and venue. Wild Yak, the independent company led by Oliver King, has staged Tartuffe (Remixed) with Mark Rylance, the Olivier-nominated What We Talk About When We Talk About Anne Frank and the Off-West End award-winning The White Factory, the last two at the Marylebone. The theatre itself has only been open since autumn 2022.
Alexander Gifford, Artistic Director of the Marylebone Theatre, said: 'The Marylebone Theatre is becoming widely known as London's new home for high-quality drama. Speculations by Torben Betts is another major new play by a great playwright at the peak of his powers, which I am sure will startle and entertain audiences. It is being brought to the stage by a stellar creative team, led by the legendary Trevor Nunn, starring one of our best-loved stage actresses, Janie Dee. I am confident it will be a worthy successor to our recent hit productions and another exciting offering for London.'
Speculations runs at the Marylebone Theatre, inside Rudolf Steiner House at 35 Park Road. Previews begin on Friday 30 October 2026, press night is on Wednesday 4 November, and the run closes on Sunday 3 January 2027.
