**** It is hard to believe that it was over 30 years ago that the film “Misery” based on the Stephen King novel was made into a film. This was a tense thriller about a famous author and one of his true fans ( or as my mother called her “fanatic”). The film starred James Caan as Paul Sheridan, the author and Kathy Bates as Annie, and was directed by Rob Reiner ( for those who remember, “Meathead” Stivic on “All In The Family”. The story involves lots of fighting and harm, so doing this as a play, live is not easy. Having an actual husband and wife perform these difficult scenes probably has to be a true strain on the marriage, or perhaps, the other way around.

When I saw that Citadel Theatre, one of my favorite suburban venues was taking this show on, I was shocked. After all, they have a small stage area with first row audience members almost on the stage, but over the years, this company has astounded me with their ability to create stories in the space they have with ease. That part being said, and hearing the cast announcement truly caught me off guard. The Phelps, Scott ( a wonderful Paul Sheldon) and Ellen ( Kathy Bates, eat your heart out) are perfect in their portrayal of these two characters. In the back of my mind, I was wondering how one goes home with one’s spouse after doing 90 minutes of hitting, drugging, pushing and all things that happen during this masterpiece of terror. Hats off to director Scott Westerman for using the small stage at Citadel to perfection, and a big salute to David Blixt for both his intimacy and violence direction.

 

The set (Bob Knuth) is truly perfect with a front door area, a bedroom where a majority of the action takes place and a sitting area with a tv set. The TV set is used to show a different time and also to allow us to visualize other scenes. As it turns out, it is also used to spy and to do the final scene. The play, as adapted by William Goldman tells us the story in detail and keeps it at around 90 minutes without an intermission. A break in the story for any reason would work against the entire story. Having a break would take the viewer away from the story for 10 or more minutes and then getting back into the plot and action is quite difficult. (0 minutes ( or so) is ideal and allows the play to work.

For those of you unaware of the actual book or film, the story is about Paul Sheldon being rescued from an auto accident and brought to the home ( to be nursed  by) of  Annie Wilkes, who claims to be his number one fan. If you listen closely to the dialogue, she may have been stalking him, and in fact, may have caused the accident in order to kidnap him and hold him hostage. His books are about a character named Misery, who in his last novel dies and is buried. This means “no more misery”, and she cannot tolerate this. It is her intention to help him write a new book and bring her back to life. It is Paul’s intent to get out of this house and away from this crazy lady- that is  the story line and this production is top notch from start to finish with the exception of one little thing. Even though Citadel is an intimate theater, I think they need to get some microphones for their actors. Non-musicals need to be heard and I do not believe that the people in the back row heard every word that was spoken, and there were some very important ones. Maybe some benefactor out there would like to donate this equipment to them. I would appreciate that, and so would those in the back row.

The entire production ( with the exception of the microphones) is sparkling. Danielle Reinhardt (costumes), Jodi Williams ( lighting), Petter Wahlback (sound) and Patrick McGuire ( props)- you all did a splendid job. Over the years I have seen several productions of this play and they were never comparable to the film version. This one was, and is worth the trip to Lake Forest. Citadel Theatre is located at  300 S, Waukegan Road (plenty of free parking), just south of Route 60 and north of Route 22 . The third character in the play, Buster ( the sherrif) is played by Jonathan Cortez.

“Misery” will continue thru – Oct 12th with performances as follows: