Misery

Simmering creepiness was the order of the day with this pot boiler thriller (based on Stephen King’s book). After crashing his car in the Colorado outback, novelist Paul Sheldon is saved by local uber-fan Annie Wilks who is unfortunately pure Bluegrass psychotic inbred and her convalescing/nursing technique is borderline Munchausen’s-by-proxy syndrome. Paul ultimately is forced to write another part of his ‘Misery’ series to secure his escape. The set was intelligently conceived, its angular door frames created an appropriate Film Noir atmosphere at times, and the two actors (Rebecca Wheatley and Philip Bulcock) built the tension well. However for me it was all let down by some hammy direction for the climax. A shame but still worth a night out.

Connaught Theatre, Worthing, 28 August 2012

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