THEATER, NYC, New ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST REDEFINES THE STRUGGLE FOR FREEDOM AMID INSTITUTIONAL REPRESSION

 The Playground NY/LA , Barefoot Theatre Company & Pontifex Productions presents

ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST by Dale Wasserman, based on the novel by KEN KESEY.

Directed by Francisco Solorzano (April 30th-May17th, 2026 



     During the Vietnam War era, the politics surrounding ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO's NEST, the novel, were volatile. "Counterculture" was not a "trend" in a time, when the nightly news showed the ritual of body bags being unloaded from planes for burial. Thousands of young men were dying in what was increasingly viewed as a brutal lost cause, a superpower game. Canada was the destination for an underground railroad of young men fleeing the war; whether students with high numbers in the lottery, or soldiers in the U.S. After the Kent State shooting of peaceful student protestors, a photo of a young woman placing a flower inside a gun barrel, was famous, as "They Shoot Students Don't They" marathon dances on campuses raised money for those fleeing the country. 

Besides anti-war advocates, "Counterculture" included those disgusted with cynical materialism and corporate greed, as well as those against nuclear war (Ban the bombs). The equality of women, African Americans, in law, education and employment (equal pay for equal work) were counter cultural principles, as was the freedom for interracial and homosexual couples to love and marry without imprisonment. 

The movement of 500,000 people, who marched on Washington, also included military leaders and families, representatives of religions and clergy.  It was the largest demonstration to peacefully protest a war in American history.  Safe organized, they disembarked from buses and marched amid trained volunteers, trained for health and safety. Johnson was quoted as saying, when he looked out his window, he knew it was time to end that war. 

Movies about the individual's struggle to be free in organized society were popular in Dr. Strangelove: How I came to love the bomb, as well as movies set in mental institutions. KING OF HEARTS was a an arguably romanticized view about inmates being gifted charming nonconformists, not disturbed individuals in need of medical care. Kesey's novel ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, seemed to focus on how societal repression of the individual maintained psychological conformity. 

But, in the popular film, Jack Nicholson's McMurty was concerned with the repression of the free white male (the spirit that tamed the American frontier) threatened with extinction by the female-run institution, "our society." The evil Nurse Ratched,seemed an enactment of female power unchecked in a position, where she could control the fate of men.  (in popular culture middle-aged career women were  often villainous sour authoritarians. Their use of authority was revenge for being "unattractive" and without the love of men.  Nicholson's battle against her authority over him in the mental hospital was about the triumph of free men. (John Wayne in a mental hospital, rallying the beaten down troops-patients).

Director Francisco Solorzano seems to have taken seriously, Kesy's subversive purpose. With McMurphy played by a beautiful high spirited young woman, the face-off is antiauthority in a realistic way. This McMurphy's self-commitment seemed a step toward freedom; away from stultifying work farm. Her choice as a free, not so educated, "wild woman" was to land on her feet and go from there. Whether Gay or Straight, Who she is, courageous, sexy, free probably out for herself seems sane. As does her efforts. Why not to introduce a social life besides therapy for the inmates? Why not treat them as individuals? Fun is a possibility and perhaps everyone's right in a life?

Damned if Ratched's sense of order and control are in conflict!  This McMurphy-Ratched face-off has a purpose. Might we wonder the cost to the fragile-seeming patients on the ward? Does Ratched have a point? Or does conflict help these patients? What is healing or treatment in the therapeutic world, versus the process of living a life in the real world? Are fun and suffering continuous?  Does human experience, break and heal? 

Kesey asked such questions in the era of LSD "trips," when the fragility of the vulnerable landed not a few in mental institutions. Was the problem emotional excess?  As Ratched and McMurphy square-off, it's a deeper conflict. Two women, one old and set in her structure, the other young, unafraid to invent it as she goes along. As it intensifies, in this very thoughtful interpretation, the audience is a "jury." And in the show's final moments, the patients' choose their individual outcomes.

For me a most profound moment was between The Chief and McMurphy. Both were disenfranchised. He's a large enigmatic native American man, possibly an Asphasia sufferer--unable to hear or speak. McMurphy's a dynamic lesbian/bisexual vibrant and a bit desperate. Emotionally there's something there.  

So this version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest should be seen and heard. It poses questions we need to think about today-- in our world, hostage to moneyed interests, emotionally managed with therapeutic applications and entertainment. Even our "life" destinies are sold in media fantasies unconcerned with our felt visions. This play frames the big picture. It's scary, but Kesy might be smiling somewhere. LOVED this cast: 

Sayra Player's Randle P. McMurphy was so scintillating I couldn't stop watching what she'd do next. Jacqueline Knapp's Nurse Ratched was a tough human being doing what she thinks she had to, with an eye that seemed not happy. Chief Bromden by Salvatore Inzerillo had a job to silently be there and not there. You did not forget him and it wasn't the height.

Aides Turkle/Pete Bancini by Ricardo Abrams had a job to play both different enough I wasn't aware it was one-person. Aide Warren, Stephen Vouse, also played so I thought in passing, a tough but necessary job. Can also mention Billy Bibbit, director's part--and a person sad with promise.

George "Big George" Sorensen, Skyler James Bailey, play him with presence as did Kate Billingsley's Candy Starr. Quite perfect as McMurphy's love interest. I also flashed on the Warhol Star "Candy Darling," who had an eerily similar presence (detached yet interested, though not as beautiful.)  

S.W.


 




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