Normally, the novelist writes what he or she wants and the audience either reads it or doesn't. In Stephen King's "Misery," that conventional balance of power is grotesquely distorted.

A reader named Annie Wilkes tells novelist Paul Sheldon what to write, and the poor wretch has no choice but to do it.

Sheldon had drunkenly wrecked his car nearby during a snowstorm. Annie found him, removed him to her remote cabin and promised to use her skills as a former nurse to heal his ruined legs.

A lucky break for Sheldon? Nope. Annie's a wholesale nut case. She can pinball in seconds from compassionate caregiver to homicidal maniac.

Turns out she's Paul Sheldon's self-described "number one fan," a woman obsessed by the heroine of his overwrought romance novels, one Misery Chastain. When Annie discovers that Sheldon has killed Misery off, she insists that he compose a sequel in which her beloved character is retrieved from the Other Side.

Annie is able to have her way because Sheldon is immobilized and in great pain, a virtual prisoner. Annie first withholds Sheldon's pain meds to force his compliance in her sicko literary enterprise. Later, she resorts to a more direct -- and bloody -- method.

King's novel appeared in 1987 and was followed by a movie version that brought Kathy Bates an Oscar for her performance as Annie. British writer Simon Moore later adapted the book into a two-character play. It opened Wednesday on Mill Mountain Theatre's Waldron Stage with Bill Ford Campbell as Sheldon and Jo Ann Robinson as his twisted tormentor.

Patrick Benton directs the thriller, which is worth seeing if the book and movie haven't already fulfilled your quota for "Misery."

Thursday's preview performance started a bit slowly but soon found its footing, largely because the grisly material, like a wreck on the interstate, compels one's attention. Campbell effectively conveys both Sheldon's physical anguish and the mix of wonderment and outright terror that Annie evokes in her involuntary house guest.

Robinson is much smaller than Kathy Bates, whose heft added extra menace to the movie portrayal, if memory serves, but her lethally mercurial Annie is quite convincing, thank you. She and Campbell work well together, and the two-character play works well in the snug Waldron space where scenic designer Jimmy Ray Ward has set Annie Wilkes' little cabin of horrors. The space is so intimate that the audience is practically in poor Sheldon's sickbed and able to feel Annie's spite and sudden, cruel blows.

Sound effects are integral to "Misery." They were sometimes effective at Thursday's preview, sometimes intrusive; fine tuning seemed appropriate.

"Misery" is recommended, though parents may wish to leave impressionable youngsters at home because of the violence and occasional adult language.