Onassis Play Attracts Controversy
Published on Monday 25th October, 10.46am, Written by Jonathan Dudley
The Novello Theatre’s production of Onassis has attracted criticism from the Onassis Foundation.
The play explores the murky dealings of legendary shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, the unscrupulous tycoon who would one day marry Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, widow of United States president John F. Kennedy. It explores his corruption and his prodigious appetite for women, money, and power. The titular character is played by My Family’s Robert Lindsay.
It is not this slightly uncomplimentary take on Onassis which has offended the Onassis Foundation, it is the suggestion that Aristotle Onassis ordered the death of John F. Kennedy in order to marry his wife.
The theory that Onassis paid for JFK’s murder is nothing new; the idea was first put forward in Peter Evan’s 2005 book Nemesis, on which the play is based. Evans is said to be “rather surprised” that the Onassis Foundation has waited for his theory to make it to the West End stage before raising objections.
The Foundation have released a statement protesting the play, in it they ask the press not to “reproduce uncritically as facts things that affect Aristotle Onassis’ memory”.
Theatre break packages to see this controversial play start from £111 per person.
