One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest casts a spell
By Dale Wasserman. Based on the novel by Ken Kesey. Directed by Patrick McDonald. A Studio 58 production at Studio 58 on Saturday, November 15. Continues until November 30
There’s no doubt about it: this production casts a spell.
Jack Nicholson won his first Oscar for his work in the 1975 movie and, because of that project, lots of people will be familiar with One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. (Both the film and the play are based on Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel.) The plot focuses on McMurphy, a rebellious young guy who’s been serving a short term on a prison farm for the statutory rape of a 15-year-old girl. Hoping to do easier time, he feigns mental illness and gets himself transferred to a psychiatric hospital, where he immediately butts heads with the domineering Nurse Ratched.
In Cuckoo’s Nest, the abuse of female power is presented as the big problem. Ratched is the uber-bitch, but she’s not the first wicked woman her patients have encountered. Stuttering, suicidal Billy Bibbit is dominated by his sex-phobic mother. Chief Bromden, a big guy who’s catatonic for much of the story, explains in a soliloquy how his white mom belittled his Native dad. And witty, nervous Dale Harding is intimidated by his voluptuous wife. Candy Starr, a supposedly positive female character, sneaks into the hospital one night with another woman to party with the guys. She’s crazy about McMurphy and obligingly has sex with one of the other men when he suggests it. The misogyny is off-putting.
And the story is painted in broad strokes. Authority, as embodied by the mental-health system, is almost pure evil. Electro-convulsive therapy is portrayed as being tantamount to torture, for instance. A statement from the Royal College of Psychiatrists declared that, “Films such as One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest did for ECT what Jaws did for sharks.”
But Cuckoo’s Nest still works. That’s because, ultimately, it’s a fable about oppression, a tale in which men treat one another with the tenderness and respect that women—and society at large—have denied them. When the Chief emerges from his catatonia because McMurphy has approached him with simple kindness, it’s undeniably moving.
Under Patrick McDonald’s direction, the student cast in this Studio 58 production serves up a remarkable piece of ensemble work. On opening night, Markian Tarasiuk, who’s playing McMurphy, pushed too hard. Hopefully, he’ll settle down throughout the run and become more responsive and less showy. But everybody else is excellent. Arash Ghorbani plays a psychotic guy named Martini and, without stealing focus, he is always doing something interesting—snuggling up to one of the other men for a little affection, holding his arm in the air long after a patient vote has been counted. Mike Gill plays Harding, the nervous guy, courageously, honestly, and intelligently. I completely bought Owen Bishop’s vulnerable Billy. Especially for such a young performer, Erin Cassidy brings impressive power to Nurse Ratched. And John Cook’s Chief made me weep.
Set designer Pam Johnson’s detailed, cavernous, sickly green psych ward is perfect—and effectively lit by Darren Boquist.
You’ve got to struggle through some weird stuff with Cuckoo’s Nest, but, in the end, this production makes magic.
Comments
9 Comments
Hazlit
Nov 17, 2014 at 4:30pm
A fair review, but the misogyny is off-putting, and I'm not exactly a screaming feminist.
Voice of Reason
Nov 17, 2014 at 7:12pm
No, Hazlit, you're a screaming idiot.
Hazlit
Nov 18, 2014 at 7:32am
Tsk, tsk, VOR, your feelings are showing. By the way GS are these sorts of ad hominem attacks allowed? I'd advise removing VOR for everyone's good.
VOR
Nov 18, 2014 at 1:22pm
Hazlit, making smart remarks about feminism is far worst than any ad hominem attacks I could give you. "Screaming feminism" is a trope that's used to downplay a very powerful and important movement - feminism. Every day remarks like yours seem minor, but they're part of this alienation of feminism. And yes, those are my feelings. They should be yours too, otherwise you deserve every "ad hominem attack" coming to you.
Martin Dunphy
Nov 18, 2014 at 2:03pm
Hazlit:
If the word <em>idiot</em> alone was grounds for censorship or banning, the <em>Straight</em> would have far fewer commenters.
I think the poster was referring to your use of the word <em>screaming</em> as a modifier for <em>feminist</em>, and with that I am in agreement. Antifeminists commonly use words such as <em>shrill</em> or <em>strident</em> to gain the same effect, and they would, in my opoinion, be as eligible as yourself for such rebuttal.
Or we could just censor the person, like yourself, who made the initial post.
Michael Puttonen
Nov 18, 2014 at 6:51pm
"...the uber-bitch...wicked woman...dominated by his sex-phobic mother...his white mom belittled his Native dad...intimidated by his voluptuous wife..."
What Kesey shows us - in the novel, and in the stage adaptation - is that these women - the nurse, the mothers, the wife- are agents of the patriarchy. Behind the nurse, the sex phobic mothers and the painted dolls you can see a long, long, long row of more powereful men; including the men who control the RCP (which is not to say ECT is not efficacious in some cases).
The whores on the other hand are self-employed contractors, they service who they please, they give it away if they want to. They aren't pimped and they aren't working for the state. Now, there are those may wish to view self-employed whores as creations of the patriarchy, but I think it is clear in the book and script that they are meant to represent sexuality free of patriarchal constraint.
KWood
Nov 19, 2014 at 1:42pm
All in all, a script that really shouldn't be being produced in 2014. Especially in a training atmosphere.
Michael Puttonen
Nov 19, 2014 at 3:23pm
To put OFOTCN in context (early 1960’s) it is interesting to look at the work of women writing at the same time, friends/contemporaries of Kesey’s… Lenore Kandel, “To Fuck With Love”, “First They Slaughtered the Angels”. or Diane Di Prima, “An Exercise in Love” (etc.) or, a little later, Naropa’s Diane Wakowski, “Teacup Feet…
...here, from “First They Slaughtered the Angels” by Lenore Kandel…
“…we have sold our bodies and our hours to the curious
we have paid off our childhood in dishwashers and miltown
and rubbed salt upon our bleeding nerves
in the course of searching
and they have shit upon the open mouth of god
they have hung the saints in straightjackets and they have
tranquilized the prophets
they have denied both christ and cock
and diagnosed buddha as catatonic
they have emasculated the priests and the holy men and
censored even the words of love
Lobotomy for every man!
and they have nominated a eunuch for a president
Lobotomy for every housewife!
Lobotomy for the business man!
Lobotomy for the nursery schools!
and they have murdered the angels…”
loose canon
Nov 30, 2014 at 2:01pm
I agree w Puttonen. I also think Colin misled more than a few folks by suggesting the play is somehow about female authority gone wrong. That could be his issue. This is an allegory about authoritarianism vs. individual freedom and self expression, and the female characters who embody the oppressors are not to be understood as the matriarchy gone wrong. Far from it. The narrative details of the (absent) women in the characters lives being responsible for their woes says as much about male impotence and the lack of sexual integration in an oppressive social system as it does about overbearing mothers. There are plenty of controlling bitches in the world, just as there are many more men who wield power aggressively. Its in all of us to some degree. The subtle characterizations in the play/story allow for these characters to be human, whilst also standing in as archetypes. That is what good theatre does.