R.P. McMurphy, hand raised, (Ronald Farnham) tries to rouse intimidated patients in a psychiatric ward from complacently allowing Nurse Ratched, right, standing, (Susan Johnson) to psychologically lobotomize them in Island Community Theatre’s production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”
Island Community Theatre starts the 2006-2007 season with what may be one of this year’s most thought provoking area productions. An adaptation of Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel about a cocky new patient battling a psychiatric nurse, Dale Wasserman’s “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” will run Sept. 15 through 24.
Both Kesey and Wasserman spent time working or intentionally residing in mental health institutions; and, although the play illustrates treatments that are not as distant as we would like to think, it deals more with issues of power, manipulation, betrayal, volition, and even humor and hope. Wasserman also wrote “Man of La Mancha” about another idealist, Don Quixote, also accused of insanity.
“Society determines who is sane,” says Dr. Spivey (Victor Carr) in one of the early group therapy sessions newly committed R.P. McMurphy (Ronald Farnham) attends. McMurphy, a convict with a history of drunken brawling and statutory rape, thinks serving out his sentence in a mental institution better than laboring at a work farm so he acts up enough to get himself committed. He ends up creating humorous havoc on a ward run by psycho-dominatrix Nurse Ratched (Susan Johnson) who knows just how to keep each of her charges – as well as the spineless Dr. Spivey and a sadistic orderly (Ed Olson) – in line by twisting the most delicate parts of their psyches to the breaking points.
McMurphy’s fellow patients include “the acutes,” patients deemed treatable, and “the chronics,” including a catatonic Ruckley (Todd Golden), who psychosomatically nails himself to the wall each morning, and the supposed deaf-mute Chief Bromden (Andrew Meacham), whose poetic, poignant soliloquies provide needed contrast to the increasingly insane situation. The pinochle-playing acutes include the paranoid Scanlon (Jeff Chapin), the immature, stuttering Billy Bibbit (Michael Amyx), Martini (Rick Kastel) who deals cards to players only he can see, the neurotic Cheswick (Dean Dobbs), and the philosophic Harding (T.J. Gill).
“Good Lord, for the tranquility we are about to receive, we thank Thee,” Harding says as he downs his daily medication, raising questions as to the lengths to which we will go to avoid having to think, to work, to fight for what we believe. McMurphy’s inciting rebellion among the patients was seen as symbolic of the counterculture revolution almost half a century ago, but seems disturbingly relevant in today’s atmosphere of passivity, apathy, and repressive political correctness.
At a recent rehearsal of ICT’s production held in an empty office space, masking tape on the carpet marking the set, director Michael DuMouchel’s strong cast conveyed resigned despair and skewed motivations. Farnham’s jaunty belligerence played well against Johnson’s steely smugness and Carr’s placating hesitancy; veteran Gill and high-school senior Amyx each displayed the versatility demanded by their parts. Meacham is heart-breaking as the gargantuan Chief made to see himself as little.
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” plays at the Catherine A. Hickman Theatre, 5501 27th Ave. S. in Gulfport, Sept. 15 through 24. Tickets are $15 each. Call 345-1474 or go to www.islandcommunitytheatre.com. Raw language, violence, and intense subject matter.
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