The Alley’s Summer Chills offering (The Girl on the Train) won’t arrive till July. But in the meantime we can more than content ourselves with Steven King’s intimate horror classic Misery, adapted with chilly finesse by Hollywood pro William Goldman, directed with cunning tension by Brandon Weinbrenner, and portrayed with alarming theatricality by Alley resident actors Elizabeth Bunch as sicko Annie Wilkes, Chris Hutchison as novelist Paul, her patient and prisoner, and, in a supporting role, Christopher Salazar as inquisitive local sheriff, Buster.
As usual, the Alley overlays this gothic, almost medieval, tale with a patented high gloss production – a realistic farm setting by Tim Mackabee (bedroom, kitchen, front porch), each revealed by a revolving stage; atmospheric music design by Melanie Chen Cole using Liberace’s virtuosic piano pieces; painterly lighting design by Seth Reiser; Haydee Zelideth’s utilitarian costumes, except for Paul’s bandaged legs and Annie’s puffy house coat. All in all, the production looks great. So why does it leave one a bit less than chilled?
Is it because we know this story from the King novel or the iconic movie version (also written by Goldman) starring Kathy Bates and James Caan, or even the stage version last seen in Houston at Dirt Dogs in 2022? What’s more to discover?
You must know the story by now. Novelist Paul, finishing his latest book in Colorado, has a car accident and is rescued by nurse Annie, who just happens to be his “greatest fan.” In her secluded farmhouse, she nurses him back to pseudo-health with pain killers and an obsequious behavior that borders on paranoia. She’s obsessed by his famous Victorian heroine Misery Chastain. She’s in love with her – and with Paul. When she discovers that he kills her off in the latest book, she demands that he write a new book in which Misery survives. Annie will do anything to keep him imprisoned in her house to write a book to her liking. Misery must live.
This might be King’s nightmare: a crazed fan who will go to any length to have her delusions realized. And a writer, shackled and drugged, who can not escape her wrath. He must write what he’s loath to write in order to survive another day.
The leads, of course, are exceptional. Hutchison, bloodied and bandaged, moans wondrously under Annie’s constant torture, while Bunch veers from loving caretaker to screeching harridan when her Furies are unleashed. She becomes more unhinged as the play progresses, which is just what we expect. They are at their best in the dinner scene, when Paul hopes to drug Annie with the Nembutal he’s stolen from her kitchen cabinet. It’s quite delicious in its rising tension, with comic interjections about Annie’s family meatloaf recipe with its secret ingredient of Spam, until she inadvertently knocks over the drugged glass of wine. The audience gasped.
I wish I could have clearly seen the painting above Paul’s bed. It was a rustic scene out of Constable perhaps, but knowing the Alley’s attention to detail, it had to be pertinent to Annie’s state of mind. As is the wallpaper, which I couldn’t make out either, but seemed to be flowers, but looked, far away, like blood splatters. If that was intentional, it’s more brilliant work from designer Mackabee.
Misery is fun, if creepy. It’s more personal than King’s horror stories, as it’s psychological and physical terror, not killer clowns or dream demons. Demon Annie is real and full of fright. Paul, alias King, is at her mercy. A writer enslaved to a fanatical reader – that’s horror enough. And, you know what, Liberace was a very fine pianist.
Misery. Through June 28. 7:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays; 8 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 2 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays; and 7 p.m. Sundays. Alley Theatre, 615 Texas. For more information, call 713-220-5700 or visit alleytheatre.org. $41-$97.
