ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST Touring
Nottingham
ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST: Dale Wasserman
Theatre Royal: Tkts 0115 989 5555 www.royalcentre-nottingham.co.uk (Touring)
Runs: 2h 20m: one interval: till 2nd June
Performance times: 7.30pm, (matinees 2.00pm Wed and 2.30pm Sat)
Review: Alan Geary: 29 May 2007
A complex and rewarding play.
It’s only incidental that Ruckly (Alan Douglas), one of the patients on a ward of the State Mental Hospital, appears to think he’s Jesus.
The real reason why it’s hard not to see parallels with the Christian story in this complex and rewarding play is that, here too, a trouble-maker unexpectedly turns up, revolutionises the way people think about themselves and others, but is, in the end, rejected by not quite everyone.
Wasserman himself said of his central protagonist McMurphy “the man’s half Christ, half con-man” The con-man bit is undeniably true: McMurphy (Shane Richie) is feigning madness to avoid an ordinary sentence for statutory rape - he’s had sex with a consenting minor - and he gambles $200 from his fellow patients.
The ward is a microcosm of society: all the patients are as well differentiated as people in the outside world. They’re supposed to be insane, but we’re persuaded to ask ourselves what we mean by that term. And in this black comedy we laugh at their antics; never because of their madness but because of their humanity.
This is set in the sixties and the way we treat psychiatric problems has moved on - there’s a horrifying ECT scene. The assumptions it seeks to overturn are, nonetheless, still widespread.
Solid direction from Tamara Harvey and sound casting add up to some fine performances. Besides Richie’s well-observed portrayal of McMurphy, there’s Sophie Ward, as Nurse Ratched, pale, icily efficient and sadistic. She accuses McMurphy of playing God yet, in a perverted way, that’s actually what she’s doing.
As Billy, a stuttering wreck with a mother problem and slashed wrists, Cian Barry is utterly believable.
So is Brendan Dempsey as Chief Bromden, a Native American who’s supposedly catatonic. His “delusions” of control are actually disturbingly reasonable: they’re supported, not only by occasional special effects seen through the windows above the realistic dayroom set, but by the panel of lights and switches in the glass-panelled admin cubicle from which Ratched controls her empire.
The Chief’s final encounter with McMurphy was sufficiently moving to make people in the audience cry.
Cast
Chief Bromden: Brendan Dempsey
Aide Warren: Neil Reidman
Aide Williams: Felix Dexter
Nurse Ratched: Sophie Ward
Nurse Flinn: Lisa Baird
Dale Harding: Peter Hamilton Dyer
Billy Bibbit: Cian Barry
Frank Scanlon: Gavin Robertson
Charles Atkins Cheswick III: James Garnon
Anthony Martini: Howard Samuels
Ruckly: Alan Douglas
Randle Patrick McMurphy: Shane Richie
Dr Spivey: Malcolm Ridley
Candy Starr: Kate-Lynn Hocking
Sandy: Marianne Adams
Director: Tamara Harvey
Set Designer: Katy Tuxford
Lighting Designer: Chris Davey
Composer/Sound Designer: Matt Clifford
Costume Designer: Dagmar Morell
2007-05-30 19:52:28