Finishing the Picture

"Finishing the Picture" is Arthur Miller's final play. It was produced at the Goodman Theatre in Chicago, Illinois in the autumn of 2004, just months before Miller's death on February 10, 2005.

Humorous and poetic, it is thinly-veiled autobiographical examination of the time Miller and his then-wife Marilyn Monroe spent shooting "The Misfits" (1961). Miller and Monroe's marriage was deteriorating at the time of shoot — the summer and fall of 1960 — due to her rampant drug abuse, her open infidelity with actor Yves Montand, and her panoply of mental illnesses.

ummary

Kitty was a successful actress, a natural choice for a major motion picture. But as production gets under way, Kitty's acting is more and more hindered by mental illness and a drug-induced haze. The play opens with the producer, who must decide whether to cancel the late, over-budget picture altogether, or whether Kitty will be able to finish.