Photo courtesy of J. Stubbs Photography (https://jstubbsphotographyvb.com/)

One of the most common disagreements in our house is over when the holiday season begins.  My wife believes the popular myth that the holiday season doesn’t start until November 1, i.e., the day after Halloween.  I take the side that the Halloween season is totally part of the holidays, and thus, the holiday season starts once Target’s Halloween section is up, Busch Garden’s Howl-o-Scream begins, and our local theaters bring us a spooky show or two. 

Well, for me at least, the holiday season has arrived, as on Friday (for good measure, Friday the 13^th), we had the privilege of attending opening night of the Stephen King thriller “Misery” at the Little Theatre of Virginia Beach.  And it started with a bang, as this play was absolutely phenomenal, a must-see for lovers of our local community theater scene. 

The show begins with Paul Sheldon, famous writer of a romance/soap opera book series, waking up in Annie Wilkes’ house, hardly able to move.  Annie informs Paul that he got into a car wreck in the blizzard of a couple nights ago, which shattered his legs and badly hurt his right arm.  The phones are out still, and the mountain pass is as of yet impassable, and so she has been taking care of him as best she can.  Best of all – Annie just happens to be Paul’s biggest fan, having read every single one of his books.  But things start to seem suspicious to Paul when days pass and Annie makes no progress on getting him to a hospital.  Slowly, he realizes he is trapped in a house with no clear way of escape or ability to contact the outside world, and Annie’s psychopathic tendencies come into full view.

Annie is played in an incredible and haunting performance by Kathy Hinson.  Hinson gives the audience the perfect balance of down-home charm and clearly bonkers energy.  She moves seamlessly between an upbeat conversation with her favorite author about her favorite books, to setting her mind to something, putting her head down, and stomping out the door of Paul’s room.  You can see Hinson go from potentially Good Samaritan, to pushing her luck by keeping Paul an extra couple of days, to desperately trying to hold onto him at all costs, and you understand exactly what is in her mind and how she gets to the conclusions that lead her down this path.  Hinson, who shared an HRACT Award last season for her costuming work on “Radium Girls” at LTN, shows off her on-stage talent here, and we were on the edge of our seats all night, mainly because of her performance.  You don’t want to miss it!

Meanwhile, Samuel Flint as Paul Sheldon gets the task of matching Hinson’s performance, and he too comes up huge.  As Paul (and the audience) slowly realizes the dire situation he is in and then starts to plot to try to get his way out, Flint brings you along for each shout in pain, each moment of tension, and each daring escape attempt.  There is so much dialogue between Paul and Annie in this play, and Hinson and Flint have the rapport to pull it off wonderfully.  Also, acting in pain can come across over-acted or lame, but Flint did it perfectly as he pulled himself across the floor, tried to stand on shattered legs, and had pills withheld from him by Annie.

The first half of this play all takes place in a single room of Annie’s house where she has laid Paul out.  And then, all of a sudden, there is a quick knock outside, and the ENTIRE SET BEGINS TO SPIN as we turn to see the town’s Sheriff, Buster (a small role but well-performed by John Robert Moss), at the front door.  Yes – this set is on a turntable, and so cleverly designed and built by Matthew Gorris, Glenn Semones, and their crew, that the cast can walk from room to room, and even down a hallway in the middle of the house, all while being spun around by the stage crew, staying in sight of the audience – like an actual, functional house!  This turntable effect added so much to the discordant feeling of the play as it spun around and is populated with items which are cute but just a little… off, a physical embodiment of Annie’s mental state.  Look especially for the cookie time cookie jar in the kitchen scene and you will get what I am saying.  The set is a masterpiece work of art that perfectly uses LTVB’s at times awkward corner stage, filling Paul’s new life with the appropriate day-to-day normalcies and yet leaving him feeling rather empty with not much there to focus on other than Annie and, of course, his writing.

I’d be remiss not to give credit to director Kelly Gilliam for getting the feel of this show just right, getting the cast’s remarkable chemistry down pat, and making such perfect use of the set in a play that doesn’t even necessarily need an impressive set to work.  Gilliam also brought in intimacy/fight director Z F Norris, who did a tremendous job with Hinson and Flint, making their physical clashes feel real, and even pulling off a couple tricks (including one with a sledgehammer) that I’m not sure how it worked, it was so perfectly set from the audience’s perspective. 

Holiday season or not, this cast and crew have won over a couple more big fans – although, after seeing this play, I’m generally going to stay away from ever declaring myself someone’s number one fan.  Bravo!