'Cuckoo's Nest' Takes Flight

The problem with watching any staged version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is that inevitably it will be compared with the film. It’s hard to get away from such potent screen images as Jack Nicholson as the demented McMurphy and Louise Fletcher as the screw-tight Nurse Ratched ... not to mention all those Academy Awards.

Fortunately, the Moorpark College production of Cuckoo’s Nest contains enough entertainment and innovation to fly on its own. While the film shadow may be there, it’s only a minor distraction.

One of the unique qualities of this production is its imagination. The audience must move past the setting and dream bigger. Look at the set—designed to resemble a psych ward in the light and an ominous factory in the dark. Think order and chaos, freedom and control, as evidenced by Chief Bromden (Cody Holguin) and his ongoing soliloquies about human greed and self-destruction.

Of course, at the heart of this show is the tense relationship between new patient McMurphy (Damon Daw) and Nurse Ratched (Kathleen Tracy), the head nurse at a men's psychiatric unit. What results is both funny and frustrating.

McMurphy enters a very orderly setting and proceeds to draw on a personality that’s a cross between Kid Rock and Beetlejuice. Ratched confronts him and the rest of the patients in the ward with methods more common to an elementary school teacher with a class full of lively third-graders.

Funny, yes, but while there is enough humor and chaos between these two to keep it interesting, the results are not necessarily satisfying. McMurphy and Ratched feel overblown, frenetic and more like caricatures: much effort, much energy, but a lack of plausibility.

What saves this production are the patients; that ragtag group of voluntary detainees who grudgingly endure Ratched and serve as willing pawns in McMurphy’s escapades.

The best of the bunch is Billy, played by Pierre-Alexander Smith, who gives an inspiring performance as the stuttering boy-man terrified of both his mother and Ratched. Billy is the heart and soul of this production, standing square between his desire for McMurphy’s sexual prowess and his conflict about living up to his mother’s standards.

There are also good performances by David Adler (Martini), Tyler Bianchi (Harding), Mitchell Brown (Cheswick) and Blake Reisfelt (Scanlon). They each seem to capture the heart and pathos of their characters—the twitches, sudden shouts, mental pain—and form a funny team of psych ward Keystone Kops afraid of the outside world, desperate to have some fun.

And then there’s Chief Bromden, the tree-sized Native American caught in a world that has destroyed his father, his culture, even his ability to talk. Chief is drawn on in this production as the symbol for human decay and is most effective when he serves as McMurphy’s moral dilemma. Chief has withdrawn and exchanged his father’s views for a factory existence, but not without his own guilt and agony. Confronted by McMurphy about choosing to escape, Chief replies, “I’m not big enough.” In this production, however, he measures up.

Given this play’s ambitions, you have to ask yourself: Is this Cuckoo’s Nest a production about the treatment of mental illness or something bigger? Is this really a psych ward or a microcosm of life in the big city?

In this sense, I believe the show reveals a grander ambition than the film and takes risks the film does not. And, with any risks, there are bound to be ups and downs. The good news is that there are more ups than downs. Enough laughs, drama, and good acting make this production worth recommending.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is at the Moorpark College Performing Arts Center, 7075 Campus Rd., through April 10. The play contains adult-oriented material and language, loud noises and strobe lights. Tickets can be purchased online at MoorparkCollege.edu/PAC. Parking on campus may require a $2 parking permit and can be purchased in any of the theater's surrounding parking lots.