Wichita Community Theatre’s new show: a stage adaptation of the film ‘Misery’

Nearly 35 years after its initial movie release, the thriller “Misery” has left an indelible impression on film audiences and pop culture itself.

The director and cast of Wichita Community Theatre’s production are assuming its audience knows the story when they walk in the door but still want to give them goosebumps.

“(There’s) the quarantine feeling that you are locked in this house,” director Bryan Welsby said. “There are no special effects, and you spend an hour and a half with Annie Wilkes and Paul Sheldon, keeping it in that very dark, ominous, closed-in feeling.”

“Misery,” which opens next week for WCT, is written by William Goldman, who also wrote the movie script, an adaptation of Stephen King’s novel.

“The dialog is about 85% identical,” Welsby said. “He did create a couple of scenes that help with the stage process to move things along.”

The play, with no intermission, runs about 90 minutes.

“There’s a great challenge of keeping everything on pace and keeping it in that horror genre,” Welsby said.

The play is whittled down to three characters: bestselling author Paul Sheldon, his “No. 1 fan” Annie Wilkes and the local sheriff.

Welsby said he felt fortunate that he knew he would cast Nick Pope and Angela Forrest from the first breath of their auditions.

“Meeting Angela for her (pre-audition) interview, I thought, ‘Oh my god, we’ve got Annie already.’ When she came in for the audition, I thought, ‘She’s got the soft. She’s got the strong. She’s got the crazy, so we’re gonna have a roller coaster ride,” he recalled.

“When Nick gave (Paul’s) final monologue, which is not in the movie, he came in and did that monologue and did all the mannerisms of being through this experience, he sold me. This is the guy who’s gonna play Paul Sheldon,” Welsby added. “They give us the arc of the characters from beginning to end. It’s so exciting.”

“Misery” won an Oscar for Kathy Bates as Annie, and Forrest said she tried to keep her distance from that portrayal.

“You don’t watch the movie ‘Misery’ when you’re trying to figure out how to do your characterization. I can’t,” she said. “You never want to be an imitator, and I don’t want to be a mimic, so I would actively avoid clips and scenes and it popping up on Netflix.”

Pope said the last time he saw the movie was after the death of actor James Caan in 2022.

“I’ve definitely gone out of my way to avoid some of the things I do remember,” he said.

Pope said it was an acting challenge.

“The play moves a lot much quicker than the movie does,” he said. “While some things have been added, quite a few things are taken out. You don’t have quite as much time for exposition and backstory that the movie or the book would allow. You have to dive in from the beginning, because it just goes up and up and up.”

Forrest said there’s more physicality in the play – written for Laurie Metcalf and Bruce Willis on Broadway – than in the movie.

“We have to work a little bit harder to sell these things when you don‘t have seven different angles and 20 different takes,” she said.

‘MISERY’

When: Oct. 16-26; 8 p.m. Thursdays-Saturdays, 2 p.m. Sundays

Where: Wichita Community Theatre, 258 N. Fountain

Tickets: $20, with discounts for students, seniors, military and opening night, from 316-686-1282 or wichitact.org