I remember when I first saw the film Misery, based upon the book by Stephen King; I didn’t sleep for a week. It was that terrifying! The book has recently been adapted to the stage. Starring Bruce Willis as author Paul Sheldon, and the always marvelous Laurie Metcalf as the psychopath Annie Wilkes, the play is tepid at best. When the tension does start to build, the audience laughs — often inappropriately. Misery was not intended as a spoof or parody of King's work, so why the laughter?
Sheldon, the author of a series of 19th century romance novels featuring heroine Misery Chastain, is involved in a horrific accident but is rescued by Wilkes, a former nurse. The snow has made the roads impassable, and the telephone wires are down, so he is stuck in Wilkes' home. When she reads his final novel and learns that her beloved character dies in childbirth, effectively ending the book series, she goes on a rampage and demands that he write Misery's Return. Wilkes keeps Sheldon prisoner, carefully meting out his pain medicine and keeping his whereabouts secret.
Those who know Metcalf only as the ditzy sister on TV's Rosanne will marvel at her fine acting. She brings the perfect combination of dottiness, sweetness and fiendishness to the role. She's frightening because one moment she's rational and sane and then becomes violent. It's frightening that the same woman who chastises Sheldon for the profanity he uses in his memoir doesn't hesitate to slam his broken legs with a book to 'punish" him. Throughout it all, Metcalf carries it off with finesse, portraying a study in contradictions.