One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

Sale & Altrincham Messenger's Review

'Confidence is far from misplaced'

By Rick Bowen

It's a measure of the confidence that exists at Altrincham Garrick that they would even attempt to put on the stage version of a multi-Oscar award winning movie.

But their production of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest proves that this confidence is far from misplaced. Written by Dale Wasserman from the novel by Ken Kesey, this is a dark, disturbing and funny masterpiece, transporting us to a world that most of us, thank goodness, will never experience first hand.

Some of the lines in the script are quite brilliant, and a gift for Garrick newcomer Tony Turner. Turner plays Randle P McMurphy, the criminal and serial gambler who hoodwinks the authorities into believing he's mentally ill and ends up being committed to a psychiatric hospital. The ward is run by Nurse Ratched, a horrible piece of work who rules her institutionalised patients with the proverbial rod of iron. McMurphy has a healthy disrespect for authority and there are inevitable clashes between him and the nurse from hell, as he tries to change the mind numbing monotony of the hospital's regime. While Tony Turner isn't a dead ringer for Jack Nicholson, the actor who played McMurphy on the big screen, the voice is uncannily similar and I feel the Garrick has recruited a performer of outstanding ability.

Nurse Ratched, marvellously portrayed by Tracy Burns, is cruel and manipulative and the group therapy sessions are nothing more than an excuse for her to pick at the still raw emotional wounds of her patients. Tracy's performance is perfectly pitched and your stomach turns over every time she appears on the ward. Jonathan White is exceptional as Chief Bromden, the huge native American patient who the staff believe to be deaf and dumb. The Chief has to put up with appalling racism from the ward's orderlies - for orderlies read prison officer - and through him we see how the authorities have marginalized and tried to belittle his people.

It was pleasing to see a younger audience at the Garrick on Monday night and if this isn't a complete sell out, there really isn't any justice out there. You simply must not miss the society's play of the season.

 

 

M.E.N.'s Review

****

In drama, laughter and tragedy make good partners. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at Altrincham Garrick is a good example of that.

It is set in a mental hospital where the almost comical routine of group and occupational therapy is interrupted by the arrival of an unusual new inmate who rebels against the system leading to a heartbreakingly sad ending. Randle P. McMurphy is sane. He has been confined for being “over zealous in sexual relations” and chooses the asylum in preference to prison. He soon relates to his fellow patients and organises afternoon TV, a ball game and a party with women. Tony Turner wins the hearts of the audience as his character clashes with the staff and helps to bring two chronic inmates back to the land of the living. One of them is a Chinook Indian - excellently played by Jonathan White - a giant of a man who is mute in the first half but subsequently speaks, at first saying he isn’t big enough. Later on he proves he is big enough both mentally and physically to deal with subsequent events.

 

Patients

But the demon whom all the patients have to face is the cold, calculating, supposedly friendly Nurse Ratched played by Tracy Burns. Tracy depicts her as a control freak who could almost be compared to a concentration camp commandant. Her revenge against McMurphy after he sexually assaults her couldn’t be more devastating and leads to the shocking and compelling conclusion.

The final scene is an illustration of the strength of the Garrick team. They don’t miss a single nuance or emotion in portraying a tear-jerking tragedy. Among the motley bunch of inmates, I would single out Mark Butt’s Billy Bibbit and Hugh Everett’s Dale Harding for particular praise.

This is a thought-provoking play. It raises issues of imprisonment and freedom, of female dominance, of individual fears and the best way to treat the mentally ill.

Julia Taylor