[2012049] Misery
The Centre for International Theatre @ Higher Ground – Main Theatre
3:00pm, Sun 26 Feb 2012
I’m not the biggest fan of Stephen King: I’ve barely read any of his work, and the movies I’ve seen of his work have varied wildly in terms of quality. But Misery fared well as a movie; it’s hard to forget Kathy Bates’ Oscar-winning performance as the obsessed fangirl.
In front of a decent-sized house, this adaptation gets off to a rocky start: rather than the intended video projection over the set and cast, we’re treated to the tell-tale blue-screen of a DVD player gone wrong. Joanne Hartstone and John Maurice hold their positions, bathed in this garish blue light, for several uncomfortable moments, until their tech gives up and brings up the stage lights… but I can only assume that the visual impact of the opening was completely lost.
Thereafter comes the familiar story of Misery, albeit in a slightly truncated form… the denouement is not book-perfect, but neither does it feel incomplete. The meat of the production is still there, with all the cocksureness, then uncertainty and escalating terror, of Paul Sheldon on display, well crafted by Maurice.
I still can’t quite reconcile whether Hartstone’s portrayal of Annie Wilkes was sublime or confused. Sure, Annie is supposed to be a psychopathic, but conflicted, “fan” of Paul, but there was something almost bipolar about her presence onstage: one minute, Hartstone is kneeling forward like a giddy schoolgirl, and the next moment sees her hunched and crippled like an old, arthritic spinster. It’s great acting, for sure, but the discrepancy was so great that it dragged me out of the moment. So, too, did some of the blocking; though the various rooms on the refined set were well defined through prop placement and floor markings, there were often odd reactions by both performers that made it appear that they could see clearly through the “walls”.
But when all the pieces come together, it becomes an immensely compelling production. Though early lighting seemed clunky and simplistic, the second act contained some great touches: the flickering projector on Paul’s face, the framing of Annie in green light during one of her soliloquies. The brutal physicality of the second act was also really well done – there was a rawness to the head slams, and Hartstone’s jolt at the end, throwing Maurice back, was proper heart-in-throat stuff.
It’s just a pity that the direction (and technical problems) in the first act seemed so uneven… and that audiences still haven’t learnt that they should actually turn off their mobile phones. Nothing takes the mood out of one of the more tense expositions than a tinny version of Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.