Misery

Stephen King / William Goldman “MISERY”

Writer Paul Sheldon, who has become famous for his romantic novels about the noblewoman Misery Chastain, is involved in a serious car accident during a snowstorm. Former nurse Annie Wilkes, Sheldon’s “number one fan”, rescues her idol and takes him to a remote house to recover. When the heroine dies at the end of the next book in the series, Annie is overcome with rage and decides that the writer must bring Misery back to life. Annie has various methods of encouragement at her disposal, such as syringes and a birthday cake.

Stephen King was inspired to write Misery by Evelyn Waugh’s short story “The Man Who Liked Dickens”, which tells of a man held captive by a tribal chief in South America. The chief loves Charles Dickens’s stories and forces the man to read them aloud to him. King became interested in what would happen if Dickens himself were held captive.

Creation is a cage into which the creator voluntarily steps. Paul Sheldon also compares himself to the beautiful Scheherazade from the frame story of “One Thousand and One Nights”, in which, in order to postpone her execution, a woman tells the sultan a new story every night.

Translator, director and sound designer: Andres Roosileht
Artist: Marge Martin
Lighting designer: Rene Topolev

Cast:
Paul Sheldon - Veikko Täär
Annie Wilkes – Liina Vahtrik
Buster – Andres Roosileht

Performance duration approximately 2.5 hours, including an interval.

The production uses stage fog, which is harmless to health, and a loud bang.