Monroe spotlighted in former husband's new play

Published on Saturday 26 July 2003 01:00

MARILYN Monroe’s battles with drink, drugs and depression are depicted in a new play written by her former husband, Arthur Miller.

Finishing the Picture is based loosely on the making of the star’s last finished film, The Misfits, which was shot the year before she died.

Monroe’s character in the new drama is never seen on stage but constantly talked about by everyone on the set.

She spends the play in a hotel room where she is addicted to tranquillisers. She drinks heavily and suffers a nervous breakdown as her friends attempt to get her to return to work.

A group of Miller’s friends attended a reading of the play last week.

"Arthur wanted to see how it works in front of an audience," one person at the reading told the New York Post.

"It’s not a complete play yet. It really is just a draft."

Miller’s previous play about his ex-wife, 1964’s After the Fall, was thought to be an attempt to overcome his obsession with her.

Monroe starred alongside Clark Gable in 1961’s The Misfits, which was also written by Miller.

Considered to be one of America’s greatest playwrights, his work rarely shies away from facing unpalatable truths. In Death of Salesman, he laid bare the heart of the American Dream, while he wrote The Crucible as a veiled critique of McCarthyism.

But despite having written dramatically on his relationship with Monroe, he rarely speaks publicly about his turbulent five-year marriage to the screen legend.

The couple met while she was taking acting classes in New York. Monroe suffered two miscarriages during their marriage which ended in 1961. She died the following year, apparently after overdosing on sleeping pills, though many conspiracy theorists have suggested her death was murder.

Following the divorce, he married the renowned photographer Inge Morath - they met on the set of The Misfits - and they were together until her death last year.