Playwright: Arthur Miller
At: Goodman Theatre
Phone: (312) 443-3800; $20-$60
Through: Nov. 7
An Arthur Miller world premiere: attention—and respect—must be paid.
Drug-addled Kitty lies comatose and naked. She's put the motion picture weeks behind schedule and millions over budget. Kitty's producer, director, cameraman, devoted assistant, rapacious acting coaches and screenwriter husband must decide the fate of the film. Aborting the picture will end Kitty's career and—it's implied—her life.
Kitty is Marilyn Monroe; Paul, her husband/writer, is Arthur Miller. Finishing the Picture is the back story of the 1960 film The Misfits, written by Miller for Monroe as a love gift even as their marriage deteriorated. Miller is blunt in this new work. When Kitty's assistant, Edna, says 'She loves you, Paul,' he replies 'But she doesn't like me. I didn't save her; she didn't save me as we promised. No more, for both our sakes.'
Kitty (dark-haired Heather Prete) mumbles incoherently and rarely is clearly seen. She's a void filled by others and colored by their relationships to her; a hollow icon held up by those around her. Is she a commodity? sex goddess? artist? pampered star? abused psyche? damaged goods? Miller's theme is that Kitty needs love, we all need love, yet giving or taking love often is the Great Impossibility. Near plays' end, Edna says 'All she needs is a little consideration.' The characters roar with laughter as good will, the best intentions and even love drown hopelessly in an ocean of emotional need.
The key role is the producer—more a stand-in for Miller than Paul—played by Stacy Keach as a decent, smart, self-made man earnestly seeking the right decision. Francis Fisher is the self-effacing, sympathetic assistant. Fog-voiced Harris Yulin is the wise movie director, forceful but no enforcer. Fit, weathered Scott Glenn is the no-nonsense, ready-to-work cameraman. In the least-developed speaking role, lanky Matthew Modine as Paul chiefly projects anger. As he rages at Kitty, she shrinks from him like the Bride of Frankenstein from the Monster. After 45 years, Miller settles scores with legendary acting teachers Lee and Paula Strasberg, who were Monroe's gurus. As Jerome and Flora Fassinger, they are Miller's buffoons, mystic artistic frauds concerned with perks and reputations. Stephen Lang and Linda Lavin play them with wry, waspish understatement.
Robert Falls' otherwise naturalistic and unflashy staging utilizes one large theatrical device in Act II, wide screen video close-ups of those speaking to Kitty. The video is both intimate and surreal, but can't replace voice. The company needs to be louder.
Those seeking weighty drama such as Death of a Salesman or The Crucible will be disappointed. Finishing the Picture is smaller, personal drama of talk and mood not sweep and action. An examination rather than a conclusion, it has a weak denouement. Some may find it emotionally unengaged, as if Miller—at 89—has passed through passion to detachment. Still, Miller's written two crisp hours of characteristically intelligent, humane dialogue, if occasionally stagy and speechy (also characteristic). The title may refer to Miller himself completing his theatrical work. If this play is his valedictory, it's a wistful one concerned with human frailty and the challenges of being compassionate.