Theater Review: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest

by Richard Goulde of of John Garcia's The Column

The cast proves itself (mostly) able to tackle the challenging story and roles involved. Randle McMurphy (in a charismatic performance by Mark Nutter), convicted of statutory rape, has been sent from a work farm to a mental institution due to deranged behavior. He may be faking it, though: trying to "play" the system to get out of hard labor.

His strong and anti-authoritarian personality quickly rises to alpha status among the other mental patients, and he finds himself butting heads with Nurse Ratched (Sue Loncar), the overlord of the mental ward.

A wonderful cast, with depth of feeling and believability, brings the story to life. I was also pleasantly surprised by their ability to balance both humor and pathos in the story. It's a difficult play, and they did a great job of bridging the laugh-out-loud moments with scenes of raw feeling.

The mental patients in particular deserve special mention: Jim Johnson as Chief Bromden, Randy Pearlman as Dale Harding, Andrews Cope as Billy, Ryan Martin as Scanlon, Nye Cooper as Cheswick, Andrew Bourgeois as Martini and Bobby Selah as Ruckly all bring humanity, vulnerability and comedy to their respective characters.

The underlying themes of power and authority play differently in the stage version than the original book by Ken Kesey, but it remains an insightful exploration of a system designed to keep people down in order to retain power over them.

One of the central characters, Chief Bromden (Jim Johnson), is the best example of this. He's a schizophrenic who sees personal truth rather than outward appearance. As a result, he perceives McMurphy and Ratched as being huge, and himself (a 6'5" Native American) as tiny and weak. At intervals, he addresses the audience and speaks of a machine-like "Combine" whose disparate parts act in unison to disempower and coerce the people.

It's a little hard to understand the Chief's asides to the audience, with the message conveyed as much through sensory impressions (a backdrop of industrial noises always joins his brief speeches) as actual verbiage.

What's easier to follow is the steady, deepening progression of authoritarianism. The story begins with the semblance of democracy, a system (the Chief's "Combine") trying to convince its members that they have power over their own lives. Specifically, the patients are supposedly able to control aspects of their own circumstances, like when to watch TV, through a democratic vote.

McMurphy's impassioned attempt to utilize this democracy against Nurse Ratched reveals that it's only skin deep. In response, Ratched resorts to increasingly direct methods of control.

For example, electroshock therapy serves as one instrument of power, both through application and threat. It also unveils Nurse Ratched, who is outwardly benign, as a petty tyrant bent on the domination of her tiny world without regard for her patients. Ernest Hemingway, who underwent electroshock therapy himself, said of the experience: "It was a brilliant cure but we lost the patient." He shot himself shortly thereafter.

A death also rocks the mental ward in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. It's impossible to tell whether Ratched is devastated by the loss of the person, or by her loss of control over the situation. Either way, the moment sends McMurphy and Ratched careening into a final, climactic struggle for power.

It's like a microcosm of George Orwell's 1984. The play portrays a pocket of society which adheres to the thin illusion of freedom but ultimately finds itself utterly subjected to the control of the surrounding system, embodied in the person of Nurse Ratched.

Unfortunately, we encounter a serious weakness here. Actress Sue Loncar doesn't seem comfortable in the role. She doesn't quite reach the emotional depth the role demands, and several verbal miscues also undermine the impact of Nurse Ratched's use of careful articulation to intimidate and manipulate.

Nurse Ratched is a character whose control of the patients is exceeded only by her self-control. But at certain crucial points, she becomes the channel through which almost all of the scene's emotional charge must flow. Unfortunately, Ms. Loncar doesn't carry those moments.

Still, she has mastered the necessary tone, and she ably conveys the core qualities of a complex character.

It would help if she would project vocally a little more, which actually reflect an important element of the story. Nurse Ratched controls her patients through a variety of means, but most directly through speech: careful voice modulation and devious wording enable her to manipulate her patients. The most effective control is always the most subtle.

After a vocal chord injury, she loses that pivotal ability to maintain her grasp over her patients. So it's one thing if the actress speaks so softly the audience must strain to hear after the injury. It's another matter entirely for a character representing the Ultimate Authority to fail to project power earlier in the tale.

Nevertheless, the play enjoys a gestalt effect wherein a strong cast, along with excellent set design and clever staging, yield a powerful performance. I recommend One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as a worthwhile, thought-provoking and enjoyable theater experience.

As an unrelated aside, kudos to the Contemporary Theatre of Dallas for its dedication to environmental concerns. The theater's Executive Director Russell Dyer, in his brief comments before the play, enjoined the audience not to trash their glass and plastic bottles so that the theatre could recycle them. The playbill also mentions the theatre's goal of installing an energy-efficient lighting infrastructure.

The production runs through March 1 and tickets can be purchased online or by calling 214-828-0094.

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