Emokhare Paul Anthony
Daily Herald
The city of Prince Albert will come alive from April 2-5 at the Prince Albert Wildlife Federation when Odyssey Productions hits the stage with Misery, a play written by William Goldman and based on the novel by Stephen King.
Trent Gillespie will be directing the performance. As a longtime Stephen King fan, Gillespie said it’s been a fun project to work on.
“I am a die hard Stephen King fan,” Gillespie said. “I think like many Gen-Xers who were Stephen King fans, we read them way too young. I think I was in junior high when I first read Cujo. I’ve read almost all of his books. I love his work, and I love misery as an author myself.”
Gillespie is an Odyssey Productions veteran, having worked as both an actor and a director. He said getting involved with this production as an easy decision.
“As soon as that script came by, I said, ‘I have to do this one. It would be an honour to do something (based on) what Mr. King did that was important to my life,’” Gillespie said.
Misery follows successful romance novelist Paul Sheldon, who is rescued from a car crash by his “number one fan,” Annie Wilkes. Sheldon wakes up in her secluded home and begins recovering from his injuries, while Annie reads his latest book. She becomes enraged when she discovers the author has killed off her favorite character.
Gillespie said the script is based more on the movie version of Misery than the book. He said directing it has been a unique challenge.
“The fun challenge with this one is maintaining the level of thriller in it,” he said. “The violence, I’ve never had to handle live fire on stage. I’ve done fight scenes before and dealt with blood but there are a few little technical things, which were kind of new for me to solve and I really enjoy doing.”
Randi Maschak will be playing the role of Annie Wilkes. She said it’s been a challenging, but fun, role.
“I thought it would be fun to play somebody who had to slip in and out of their character from psycho to sweet so many times so quickly,” she said. “I was like, that sounds like a fun challenge.’”
While Gillespie is a major King fan, Maschak is a bit more agnostic about his work. She knew of King’s reputation, and new about the movie, but didn’t know the plot or the characters.
Although she’s not a major King fan, Maschak enjoyed the challenge of understanding her character.
“Her mindset is so unlike how normal people would think,” Maschak said. “The hardest part was getting into her logic behind this. Why would she even think this is a good thing to do?”
Like Gillespie, Maschak is a longtime Odyssey Productions veteran. She said working with the cast and the crew has been a great experience.
“We laugh a lot,” she said. “For it being such a serious play, we have a lot of fun.”
‘Misery’ runs from April 2-5 at the Prince Albert Wildlife Federation. April 2-3 are show only productions, while April 4-5 are dinner theatre. For ticket information, visit the Odyssey Productions Facebook page or Eventbrite.
—with files from Jason Kerr/Daily Herald
