Somesville group’s ‘Misery’ a true joy

If you’ve read a novel by Stephen King, then you know the reaches of his spooky tales and the jittering juju they work on your head. It could be an unexpected thud against the car. Or a big drooling dog. Or your husband, who’s working on a book but has written an entire manuscript of “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.” In any case, you’re sunk.

Eek, the very thought of it.

Just when you thought it was safe to not look over your shoulder, Acadia Repertory Theatre in Somesville has come up with “Misery,” a stage adaptation of King’s novel about a hyper-successful novelist and his No. 1 fan, a crazy woman who identifies a little too completely with the writer’s most famous character.

Director Ken Stack is having an unadulterated blast with this show. He knows he has the advantage of local color and local legend. So he doesn’t waste time with special effects or hokey stylistics. Stack takes full and mirthful delight in staging “Misery” in paradise.

Simon Moore’s suspenseful script presents Paul Sheldon, an accomplished, popular writer whose last novel, “Misery in Paradise,” has won him enough accolades to send him back to his favorite writing spot for the winter.

When his car veers off the road in a snowstorm, Sheldon awakes to find himself with multiple injuries, including two broken legs. He is entirely at the mercy of an unpredictable former nurse whose bedside manner has more in common with Jeffrey Dahmer than with Florence Nightingale. She’s nuts and she’s dangerous and she has an ax to grind, not to mention that shotgun in the barn.

Stack proves himself a master of restraint — allowing shadows, sweet music, a rustic set and episodic escalation to build a potboiler. More than one audience member squirmed at the realism of the action, which could, in the hands of a lesser director, fall fatly into hamminess.

Stack’s best move was casting Bangor actor Robert Libbey, whose portrayal of Sheldon is both intelligent and vulnerable. When Libbey screams in agony or giggles in despair, you feel his pain. He makes you laugh and grimace and cringe and tap your toe with anxiety, but he never distracts you by announcing his bag of theatrical tricks.

Catherine LeClair as the fan-atic Annie Wilkes has the humdingerly task of playing a wildly cuckoo woman whose illness piles up like dirt on a coffin. Some of her choices bounce a bit — a scene with a knife and honey jar, for instance, is overstated — and sometimes the considerable physical demands of the role steal volume from a voice that can, at its magical best, be both funereal and buttery.

LeClair moves around the stage with quirky determination, and when she is called upon to stretch her skills to the limit of the horror genre, she does it without bumping into silliness.

When the book “Misery” came out, readers felt they were given some insight into King’s own experience of celebrity. Since the car accident that nearly hobbled King in real life last year, all his works — especially “Misery” — have an eeriness splintering through them. That’s true for this production, too.

But any way you slice it — as a novel or as a film — “Misery” was a hit. ART’s stage adaptation joins the ranks as an entertaining and amusing grabber. It’s a hit, so to speak, and the stage phrase “break a leg” has some real depth here. Be advised: You’ll be looking in the back seat on the dark ride home. Just pray there isn’t fog.

Acadia Repertory Theatre will present “Misery,” 8:15 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday through July 8, and 2 p.m. July 9 at the Masonic Hall in Somesville. For tickets, call 244-