Paul Sheldon knows he is in trouble.
The novelist wakes up after a car accident to find himself badly injured, miles from help and entirely dependent on the woman who rescued him. Annie Wilkes tells him she is his biggest fan. At first, that sounds like good news.
Then, she reads his new book.
From Wednesday, Oct. 14 through Sunday, Nov. 1, North Carolina Stage Company brings Stephen King’s “Misery” to its downtown Asheville theater, adapting William Goldman’s stage version of the story made famous by King’s 1987 novel and the 1990 film starring James Caan and Kathy Bates
For director Charlie Flynn-McIver, who co-founded NC Stage, the story has been on his radar for years — one of his “rewatchable” movies that “almost feels like an old friend,” he explained. “I can be flipping through TV channels, see that it’s on, and no matter where we’re at in the runtime, I can jump right back in.”
But the familiarity of “Misery” also presents a challenge for a director: How do you keep an audience on edge when some of its members already know exactly what’s coming? The answer, Flynn-McIver said, is not to try to reinvent the story. Goldman, who wrote thescreenplay for the film, also adapted it for the stage, and the play follows the movie closely. Instead, NC Stage’s production has to resist giving anything away too soon.
“We can’t telegraph what’s going to happen,” Flynn-McIver said. “It has to appeal to people who don’t know the story, as well as the people who do.”
That means even the well-remembered moments have to arrive at the right time. Let suspense build — as if everyone in the audience is experiencing the story for the very first time, right alongside the characters.
At the center of that suspense are Paul and Annie, whose relationship becomes increasingly complicated. A hugely successful romance novelist whose work has centered on his most popular character, Misery Chastain, Paul has grown tired of writing the series that made him famous and begins to work on new material he considers more artistically fulfilling. Annie, meanwhile, has built much of her emotional world around Paul’s books and the character of Misery.
“She is a super-fan on steroids,” Flynn-McIver said. “Annie is a bit of a social outcast, who escapes into the world of the Misery novels, where she feels most understood. She identifies with and idolizes this character, and she absolutely idolizes Paul Sheldon. But he’s ultimately not able to fulfill her expectations.”Annie feels that Paul has betrayed her by abandoning his Misery novels, while Paul has to reckon with the increasingly dangerous consequences of disappointing someone who believes he owes her something.
Part of the fun of directing this story, Flynn-McIver said, is getting to unpack Annie’s disproportional reaction and trying to understand things from her point of view. “I’ve really gotten to dig into the ‘why’ of this character,” he said. “It’s something I’ve always been fascinated with: peeling back the layers and figuring out why people behave the way they do. And here you have this story with two characters, one behaving irrationally, and the other slowly realizing the dire situation they’re in.”
Another element to work through is translating the suspense of the film onto NC Stage’s intimate 124-seat thrust theatre, where the audience surrounds the stage on three sides. Much of the play takes place with Paul confined to a bed, leaving the actors with a relatively small physical space in which to build the tension.
But Flynn-McIver said that confinement actually makes each moment — every glance and expression, the actors’ tone of voice, the way Paul moves (or doesn’t move) from his position in bed — matter more.
“We want the audience members to feel like they’re a fly on the wall in the world where this story is unfolding,” Flynn-McIver explained. “Film achieves that effect with close-ups and editing. Selecting shots like that can dictate what you notice and the way you feel. Without those camera choices, if the film were to play out as-is, a lot would be lost. It would be static. So, in a live performance, in a room like ours, which is literally three-dimensional, we need to create scenes that work in three dimensions — and have characters that are three-dimensional too.”
This means much of the play falls to the three actors, Jeff Benninghofen (Paul Sheldon), Laurie Carter Rose (Annie Wilkes) and Dan Carter (Sheriff Buster), to create the film’s tense moments in real time.
“We have a fantastic cast,” Flynn-McIver said. “Dan does a great job of playing the neighborly, small-town sheriff. And Jeff, who I’ve worked with before, is very thoughtful and intelligent, but comes with a little bit of swagger. That’s actually one of the things that made me think of him for this role, because he can really sell this attitude that is sort of necessary for the character of Paul, who can be unwittingly condescending to Annie sometimes.
“Laurie has actually played Annie two times before,” the director continued, “but she’s one of those actors that really loves to dig deep and work on her roles, so that no two productions are the same. She’s an artist and a joy to work with, always talking through each scene and discovering new things about the character that she hadn’t thought of before. Together, they’re just really compelling to watch.”
The production is recommended for audiences 16 and older and includes stage violence, a simulated gunshot and strong language.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: “Misery” by William Goldman, based on the novel by Stephen King
WHERE: North Carolina Stage Company, 15 Stage Lane, downtown Asheville
WHEN: Wednesdays through Sundays, Oct. 14 through Nov. 1
TICKETS: $27-$54 at ncstage.org; student tickets for $15
