Review: Lee Street Theatre's "Misery”
Steven King's classic tale gets the Lee Street Treatment, with strong performances from Jessica Jax and Eric Seale.
For Lee Street Theatre’s Misery, audiences are seated before a dim, misty set with the radio blaring and the sounds and shadows of thick rainfall. Just-melting snow clings to the edges of a small mountain house, a skeletal construction allowing us to see almost all of it at once. A figure is already asleep in the darkness of the extra bedroom, a dull light filling the floating rectangle of the window upstairs. When the house is plunged into darkness and the sounds abruptly cease, audible gasps come from the audience.
“Misery” at Lee Street Theatre
February 7-22
Written by William Goldman
Based on the Novel by Stephen King
Directed by Ryan Miles
Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30 PM ET
Sundays at 2:30 PM ET
Performances held at
Lee Street Theatre
329 N Lee St.
Salisbury, NC 28144
The figure in the bed is author Paul Sheldon, rescued from a near-fatal car crash by local nurse Annie Wilkes. It is 1987 and Sheldon is the author of a series of eight gothic western novels starring Misery Chastain and, as fate would have it, Wilkes is his number one fan. With the roads closed and phone lines down due to the weather, Sheldon is at the mercy of his host, who has set his bones and intends to help him recover.
Eric Seale plays author Paul Sheldon with an open country gentility and a raspy bellow. Rather than a bookish recluse, Sheldon is a celebrity and Seale leans gently into the machismo of an author for whom writing is work. As his dependence on Wilkes creates increasing tension, Sheldon furtively charms and flirts with her, his only options for any control.
He has both legs broken and his right arm badly injured in the crash, and Seale had the audience wincing with his slightest movements just minutes into the play. For a plot built from so few moving parts, Sheldon’s severe pain is central to Misery. The actor must be believed, and Seale carries onlookers with him into his suffering. Seale’s naturally tall, powerful stature makes his helplessness all the more unsettling, and lends gravity to the control Wilkes has over Sheldon.
Annie Wilkes is an exciting challenge for any actor lucky enough to play her, and Jessica Jax is game. Wilkes’s metamorphosis from meekness is the axle Misery turns upon, and Jax’s entry point to her transformation is the euphoria, rather than the creepiness, of fanhood. Like with so many other villains of the stage she shares private looks out to the audience, away from Sheldon’s gaze, which reveal her true feelings. Yet, instead of exposing malice or monstrosity, Jax smiles to herself with the giddy flush of a dream coming true. Wilkes is delusional.
She takes great pains to delay confronting the facts of her situation, just as Sheldon - as a modern-day Shahrazad - does all he can to extend the fantasy. Jax switches from wholesome sweetness and dutiful care to a blank, dark resolve, and back again. She pinpoints that Annie Wilkes’s struggle with reality is the true source of the horror in Misery.
“[My Annie Wilkes is inspired by] Kathy Bates herself, Grace Chasity (Nerdy Prudes Must Die), Rumi Hidaka (Perfect Blue), and the crazed fangirls, otaku, and Stans all over the world.” - Jessica Jax
Rod Oden’s sound design, along with the work of his lighting team – Ryan Crow, Autumn Perkins, Kelly Sandoval, Addison Schwab, Haley White, and Malachi Williams – grounds the electricity on stage. Shocking jump scares, a brooding tone set by inclement weather, and the prevalence of Liberace deepen the isolation of Wilkes’s cabin. The pieces are carefully set, and by and large serve to make this world feel whole. Even a few cues — the pop of a wine bottle being uncorked, the real crack of bones in Seale’s right hand when he frees his arm from the sling — were so perfectly audible I cannot tell if they were from the stage or a perfect mix over the speakers. Oden and Lee St. are experts when it comes to establishing and preserving mood.
That’s why it’s a small disappointment when the production is frayed. Characters venturing outside never seemed to realize that it is cold and raining. Jax’s blocking had her back to the audience too frequently during crucial dialogue. Her carefully applied deadpan was often lost to a wall, the backstage, or the lyrics of a background song.
Misery is always a fun show to see in production, but the importance of setting its tone can be obscured by a focus on the acting involved. A standout in the region when it comes to creating the full picture, Lee Street once again reminds us that, with creative ingenuity, there are levels available to us in production at the community level that will elevate the entire show.
Two shows remain this weekend, and as of this writing there are 23 tickets left for Friday at 7:30 PM, and only 8 tickets left for Saturday at 7:30 PM.
We expect this show to sell out, so click here to buy tickets.