René Moreno has his own way of looking at Stephen King's novel Misery, about a psychotic woman who holds her favorite romance author captive after she saves him from a car wreck.

"What if Stephen King had a muse?" he asks. "Annie Wilkes becomes the horror-fiction writer's muse. Muses were both giving and loving toward the people that they were bestowing their inspiration to, but they could also be jealous and incredibly vindictive if you did something wrong."

Moreno seems to be in tune with British writer Simon Moore, whose 1992 stage adaptation of Misery Moreno is directing for its North Texas premiere at Circle Theatre.

For Moore, who directed the original London production that starred Sharon Gless as Annie, looking more closely at the relationship between the writer and his fan became more important than exploiting the horror of it all, which is what happened in Rob Reiner's 1990 acclaimed movie version that earned Kathy Bates an Oscar.

"Underlying the theme of the book was this whole idea of fan worship," Moore says. "They really played it for shocks in the movie, but in the theater it is a much more intimate experience."

Moore has adapted other books, including the TV versions of Gulliver's Travels and Dinotopia. He also wrote Traffik, the six-hour BBC miniseries that Stephen Soderbergh later adapted into his Oscar-winning film Traffic.

"When I'm adapting, I always spend as much time as possible trying to get into the voice and head of the writer," he says. "King has such a particular way of writing. Quite late in the process, I suddenly got enough confidence to be able to write from the point of view of Annie Wilkes and write original dialogue for her, which hopefully doesn't feel different from the wonderful stuff that was already there in the book."

A longtime fan of King's work, Moore met King when working on the play. King later read it and gave his seal of approval.

Moore says other fans of King's work will be appreciative of how faithful the play is to the novel.

"I've always felt that with his books and the best film adaptations of his work. . . you can't be frightened of looking into that box, because that's exactly where he wants you to look," Moore says.

Circle's production features Kristina Baker as Annie, and Michael Corolla as Paul Sheldon.

Misery previews Wednesday and Thursday, opens Nov. 1 and runs through Dec. 7. Performances are 7:30 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays; 4 and 8:30 p.m. Saturdays.

Misery

Wednesday through Dec. 7

Circle Theatre

230 W. Fourth St.

Fort Worth

$10-$30

(817) 877-3040

http://www.circletheatre.com/

'Misery'