Stephen King’s thriller classic Misery has been a best-selling book, an award-winning film, and an acclaimed Broadway play. It might be best known for the scene-stealing dark comedy antics of humorously deranged character Annie Wilkes. 

King was ahead of his time with this story of author Paul Sheldon’s number-one-fan, centering on a theme that is even more relevant today. Because of social media, fans are able to unite and create sometimes toxic fandoms, and more people than ever have created concerning parasocial (an unreciprocated, one-sided feeling of intimacy and connection with someone in the public eye in some way) relationships with people they only know online - but who they think they know deeply.  

Obsessive fans have been around for a long time, including Lisztomania in the 1840s (and the subject of a 2009 hit single from Phoenix) when frenzied and fainting fans of Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Liszt would fight over pieces of his broken piano strings and his cigar butts. Some devotees would even carry glass vials holding the remnants of his undrank coffee. In 1995, pop star Selena was killed by the president of her fan club. In K-Pop culture, “sasaeng” are known for stalking their idols. 

At the time Stephen King wrote his story in the 80s, Mark David Chapman had shot Beatle John Lennon, and President Ronald Reagan had an attempted assassination on him by John Hinckley Jr., an obsessive fan who was trying to impress actor Jodie Foster. Eminem wrote the song “Stan” in 2000 about an obsessive fan, and the word “stan” has since entered the popular lexicon. 

Former nurse Annie Wilkes is a paradoxical enigma. She is okay with keeping a famous person under lock and key in her home, but don’t you dare use a bad word in front of her! When angered over a plothole she found in one of Sheldon's books, she exclaims loudly “He didn’t get out of the cock-a-doodie car!”

Funny yet petrifying, Annie’s humorous lines lighten the mood of such a suspenseful horror story, and this absurd mix of sweet, hospitable demeanour with unhinged moral outrage with downright obsessive behavior helped actor Kathy Bates win the 1991 Best Actress Oscar for the role. 

Come see Jacque Wilke (last seen at the Arvada Center in The Mousetrap) and her take on this complex but comedic character when Misery opens September 4! Get your tickets on the event webpage.