In the Fall of 2016, Ruth Stage presented the United States premiere of John Fowles’s famous novel, The Collector. Adapted for the stage by Mark Healy at the coveted 59E59 Theaters in Midtown Manhattan, our groundbreaking theatre company reimagined the chilling story off Broadway as a taut two-hand, psychological thriller.

Frederick Clegg, a lonely amateur entomologist, uses a sudden windfall to purchase a secluded home, not to build a life for himself, but to imprison the woman he has long obsessed over. What unfolds between Clegg and Miranda Grey is a brutal battle of intellect and will. As Miranda fights to reclaim agency through resistance, persuasion and unflinching self-reflection, Clegg cloaks possession in the language of love and logic, exposing the terrifying entitlement beneath his restraint. The play charts their shifting power dynamic toward a devastating and morally stark conclusion.

Performed in 59E59’s intimate Theater C, Ruth Stage’s production placed audiences uncomfortably close to the action, heightening the suffocating tension of Miranda’s confinement and implicating spectators in the unfolding psychological duel. Starring Matt de Rogatis as Clegg opposite Jillian Geurts as Miranda and under the direction of Lisa Milinazzo, the staging embraced a spare, clinical design - pinned “collections,” a single bed and a locked door with lighting that hovered like a specimen under glass. The result was an unrelenting, claustrophobic experience that interrogated class, isolation, and the dark distortions of romantic fantasy.