Misery At St Jacobs Country Playhouse
I once described the fare offered by Drayton Entertainment as a welcome palate cleanser to the hoity-toity fare served up by august institutions like the Shaw and Stratford Festivals. Misery by William Goldman, adapting Steven King’s novel and movie of the same name, is the perfect case in point.
Misery, starring Randy Hughson and Tracey Ferencz, currently packing them in at Drayton’s St Jacobs Country Playhouse in Waterloo, is pure theatrical entertainment of the sort that so many contemporary playwrights, however lofty their aims, seem incapable of providing.
It’s hard to imagine that anyone is completely ignorant of the plot of Misery, but just in case it tells the story of the fabulously successful novelist Paul Sheldon, famous for his series of historical novels about one Misery Chastain.
Just before the release of the latest Misery Chastain opus, Sheldon has totalled his car in a Colorado snowstorm, winding up severely injured in a ditch near the secluded home of his “number one fan” Annie Wilkes, a sweet recluse who happens to keep a sledge hammer under the bed in the guest room. Just in case.
Somehow (cue willful suspension of disbelief) Annie, an ex-nurse has managed to haul him to her house. Immobilized, his legs in home-made splints, Sheldon is being lovingly looked after.
Well, until the latest Mercy Chastain novel arrives that is. When Annie discovers that Sheldon has killed off her favourite character things take a darker turn. Annie holds the helpless Sheldon hostage until he re-writes his wrong. He resists. She insists. It gets ugly.
This Mercy gets an absolutely smashing production under the direction of Skye Brandon, with the able assistance of set designer Doug Paraschuck, lighting designer Kevin Fraser, costume designer Jessica Pembleton, and sound designer Allan McMillan.
Paraschuck’s set is a thing of beauty, one of the best I’ve seen at Drayton. Built on a revolve that allows Sheldon, once he gets a wheelchair, to move through Annie’s house as he desperately tries to find a way out of his predicament. Fraser lights it perfectly; I especially liked the way the dense Colorado forest that surrounds the house shimmered in Fraser’s liquid light plot.
McMillan’s ingenious sound design lets us hear both the faint sounds of Annie’s car and the loud cracks of thunder. Fight director Joe Bostick chips in a thrilling struggle for the play’s denouement.
The cast is perfection. Hughson, taking a break from his extended season at the Blyth Festival, is riveting as the tortured writer. Ferencz, new to me, makes for a quietly unsettling villainess without succumbing to the temptation to turn into a complete monster.
Misery is gothic horror of the sort that has the audience laughing to dispel its fear as it cringes at Annie’s ever mounting insanity. I found the whole thing vastly entertaining as did the packed house with whom I saw it. If your date resists an invitation to see the show, on the grounds that they saw the movie, break their ankles and drag them to St Jacobs.
Misery continues at the St Jacobs Country Playhouse through October 26, 2025. For more information and to purchase tickets visit the Drayton Entertainment website.
[image: Drayton Entertainment]
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