For the first time
in 40 years, American
playwright Arthur Miller has revisited his turbulent
marriage to Marilyn Monroe in an autobiographical play that opens this
week in Chicago.
Finishing The Picture, a fictional portrait of Monroe's emotional
disintegration, is based on the creation of her penultimate film The Misfits, for
which Miller wrote the screenplay.
Matthew Modine stars as a young writer who is powerless to stop the
fragile star's descent into depression and drug addiction.
It is about the tremendous pressure of being one of the most iconic
characters of the 20th Century.
In the play, Miller, 88, settles some scores with Lee and Paula
Strasberg, the gurus
of method acting
who were drafted on to the set of The Misfits to cope with Monroe's
mood swings.
They divorced the month the film was released in 1961.
It was her third divorce. A year later, Monroe died at 36 from an
apparent overdose of sleeping pills.
She was shooting her last movie, Something's Got to Give, at the
time.
(CRIENGLISH.com) |