Creatively Hobbled | David McNally braces himself for the next bedside visit from Nancy McAlear in Misery
MISERY
Directed by Bradley Moss. Written by Simon Moore, based on the novel by Stephen King. Starring Nancy McAlear and David McNally. Apr 24-May 11. The Roxy (10708-124 St). Tickets available at The Roxy box office (453-2440).
“When I informed the Canada Council of our choices for the season, my officer in Edmonton sent back an e-mail that said ‘Misery??’ muses Bradley Moss, artistic director of Theatre Network and director of Simon Moore’s adaptation of Stephen King’s novel. Moss seems concerned that his decision to stage a work derived from the most popular horror novelist of all time, though well supported by his board of directors and the theatre’s staff, will be seen as somehow beneath the artistic standards of a professional theatre company. All the same, he’s ready to trust his instincts.
“I think that’s what got me cranked about the play is that Stephen King is a really great writer. He’s writing about what he knows—there’s an authenticity in this book. He’s not bullshitting you, he’s sharing something about the human condition. We’re not far removed from violence or from absolute cruelty to one another. That’s the psychological creepiness of the play to me.”
Or maybe Moss relates to the themes he’s identified in the source work. Misery comes out of a particularly dark time in the author’s life. King has admitted he was so heavily addicted to a daily regimen of booze and drugs, both licit and illicit, for part of the 1980s that he can’t remember writing entire books. Upon crash-landing in rehab, he confronted the fear that he wouldn’t be able to write without chemical stimulation and struggled with the great burden of his audience’s expectations. Moss observes that Annie Wilkes, the number-one-fan/abductor of romance writer Paul Sheldon—brought to Oscar-winning life by Kathy Bates in the 1990 film version of Misery—is a nightmare externalization of the artist’s fear.
“Annie to me embodies the sense that you’re only as good as a certain kind of work, or they only like you when you do a certain kind of work. And Annie totally nails Paul at various points in the play. She’s a very tough dramaturge—and often she’s right, though pretty extreme,” he says with a laugh.
Whatever you might think of King’s work, Misery looks like a no-brainer for stage adaptation. It’s a tense two-hander set in a remote farmhouse where psychotic nurse Annie has confined arrogant writer Paul and cruelly compels him to resurrect Misery Chastain, the fictional heroine he’s killed off in his most recent book. Moss has recruited Nancy McAleer and David McNally for his cast, David Fraser for production design and Dave Clarke for sound design. New technology has been brought into play, as well, courtesy of a 12-channel sound mix and automated lighting cues. Moss says preparations for the play have been among the best rehearsals he’s ever had.
“I hope I haven’t turned it into a black comedy, which is my nature,” he says. “I think we’ve stayed true to the psychological aspect to it, but we’ve taken a lot of delight in putting it together and I hope that comes across in the ride that we’re going on.”
