New Court Theatre play anything but a Misery
I guess that no one at The Court Theatre cheerfully burbled that traditional thespian call of ‘‘break a leg’’ before the curtain rose on the production of Misery on Saturday.
Given the plot of this stage adaptation of Stephen King’s 1987 psychological chiller, any reference to fractured limbs would have been totally tasteless.
The book, a cult classic, became a film which in turn was translated into two plays – one in Britain, the second by American playwright William Goldman. Director Dan Bain wisely chose the second, a smoothly polished adaptation. Despite Goldman’s writing skills, I found nothing genuinely terrifying about Misery the play. Despite a heavy overlay of the Gothick terrors, you would probably get more chills by sitting in a tepid bath at home.
The plot follows the misadventures of Paul Sheldon (Gavin Rutherford), the author of a series of successful period romances who is rescued from a car crash in rural Colorado by Annie Wilkes (Lara Macgregor.) The former nurse and Paul’s ‘‘Number One Fan’’ is obsessed with the man and his books. So much so that she is determined to keep Paul as her very own resident author even if that means strict discipline and close confinement.
As the thunder crashes and the wind howls, deadlines become the least of Paul’s problems, especially when writer’s block and a wish to escape can be resolved with a brick and heavy sledgehammer.
Macgregor is marvellously unrecognisable as Annie in all her dowdy, flat-footed insanity. Macgregor plays the part with relish, thumping around the stage, cooing encouragingly at one moment, shrieking dementedly the next.
Rutherford plays Paul with equal bravura and a fine delivery of howls and yelps of pain. Both work hard in their highly physical roles but miraculously avoid any temptation to over-act. Sadly, the signs were there that Adam Brookfield would only make a brief appearance as the local sheriff before Annie forced him into early retirement.
Harold Moot’s clever set and Giles Tanner’s lighting and technical effects underpinned a bloody enjoyable evening’s theatre. Nevertheless, if you want to be genuinely terrified, the book is better.
The play runs until August 25.