MISERY to be Presented at Resident Ensemble Players in February

Get your scares in at the Resident Ensemble Players with Misery, by William Goldman, based on the terrifying novel by Stephen King - performing Feb. 13 through Mar. 2, at the Roselle Center for the Arts.

This psychological horror follows disturbed former nurse, Annie Wilkes, and famous romance novelist, Paul Sheldon. After Paul is seriously injured in a car accident during a dangerous snowstorm, Annie brings him to her home, where recovery soon becomes captivity. As Paul struggles to escape, he realizes the biggest challenge of his life will be surviving the wrath of his "number one fan".​

"Stephen King is a master of making the 'familiar' feel both threatening and disturbing," says director Michael Gotch. "A small farmhouse and a seemingly innocuous and friendly woman we might imagine coming from a Norman Rockwell painting of Americana both become monstrously nightmarish as the layers are peeled back on that initially benign surface. He looks behind the curtain, so to speak, at what lurks behind the porch light and welcome mat of an otherwise "normal" American home and reveals what is sometimes bizarre, sometimes unsettling, and always complex and fascinating. He's also a master of the rollercoaster; he expertly ratchets up the stakes, the tension and the urgency, keeping us on the edge of our seats whether we're reading the stories or viewing them. I can think of no other popular author so prolific and so potent in his collective works. Immensely imaginative, bold, audacious, funny, and extremely skilled in giving us something that will haunt us long after the final page is turned or the credits roll."

Stephen King authored the novel Misery in 1987. The novel won that year's Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel and was number four on the best-seller list. The story was then adapted by William Goldman into a screenplay for the 1990 film, which Kathy Bates won the Academy Award for Best Actress. Goldman again adapted the story for stage with the 2015 Broadway production starring Laurie Metcalf, Bruce Willis, and Leon Addison Brown.

"The play version of the novel offers a new approach to the story," director Michael Gotch explains. "A more claustrophobic and immediate vibe, immersing the audience in the close confines of Annie Wilkes house of horrors and the fascinating, and unsettling, relationship between her and her idol and prisoner, Paul Sheldon. The audience is 'there', in the same room, in real time, with none of the protections of distance afforded by a movie screen or a book. You can't walk away, you can't close the cover and put it down, you're experiencing the story from start to finish without barriers, and that's always what makes live theatre so much more visceral and fun than other forms. We hear, we see, we feel right along with the characters... and in a story like this, that makes for some thrilling moments."

The cast includes REP company members Mic Matarrese* (Paul Sheldon); Kathleen Pirkl Tague* (Annie Wilkes); and Hassan El-Amin* (Buster). *Member of Actors' Equity Association. The creative team includes Michael Gotch (Director); Stefanie Hansen (Scenic Designer); Jo Fulmer (Costume Designer); Eileen Smitheimer (Lighting Designer); Ryan P. McGinty (Sound Designer); and Lee E. Ernst (Fight Choreographer).

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