Following his critically acclaimed, up-close reinvention of Arthur Miller’s Incident at Vichy and sell-out revival of The American Clock, multi-award-winning director Phil Willmott brings the intense focus of the intimate Finborough Theatre to bear on Miller’s final work, Finishing The Picture, opening for a four week limited season on Tuesday, 12 June.
The Cast comprises; Patrick Bailey, Stephen Billington, Jeremy Drakes, Nicky Goldie, Rachel Handshaw, Oliver Le Sueur and Tony Wredden.
As the women of today’s Hollywood campaign for dignity and equality, Finishing the Picture is a razor sharp psychological study of an abused, misunderstood female star and the havoc her unpredictability brings to a film set in 1961.
Inspired by the filming of The Misfits, the screenplay Miller wrote for his then wife, Marilyn Monroe, and focused on the bemused and exasperated director, screen writer, producer, acting coaches and crew that closely mirror the real life production team of The Misfits – and whilst leading lady Kitty shares many characteristics with Monroe herself,
Finishing the Picture – Arthur Miller’s very final play – is a devastating indictment of how a male-dominated movie industry inadvertently destroyed a vulnerable young woman, even as they transformed her into a screen goddess, and how they were unable to deal with the wreckage they caused.
This UK premiere is only the play’s second production anywhere in the world, following its original large-scale premiere at Chicago’s Goodman Theatre in 2004, shortly before the playwright’s death.
