For Immediate Release:
Contact: David Kuehn, Executive Director
Cotuit Center for the Arts
Phone: (508) 428-0669
Email: David@cotuitcenterforthearts.org
Website: ArtsOnTheCape.org
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” at Cotuit Center for the Arts
Cotuit Center for the Arts presents “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” April 14 to 26. Performances
are Tuesday and Wednesday, April 14 and 15, at 7:30 PM, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, at 7:30
PM, and Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM.
Richard Martin directs the play, written by Dale Wasserman in 1963, and adapted from Ken Kesey’s
1962 novel. Kirk Douglas played the lead role in the Broadway play. It was also made into a movie,
starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher in 1975, which won five Academy Awards.
R. P. McMurphy, a boisterous, charming rogue, is sent to the state mental hospital for observation.
He has been serving a short prison sentence for statutory rape, and initially views the transfer as a
good thing, a way of avoiding hard labor. However, he soon encounters Nurse Ratched, who rules
her psychiatric ward with an iron fist and a penchant for electro-shock therapy.
McMurphy, intent on showing the other patients a good time, disrupts her orderly world, and a
battle of wills emerges. “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” delves into the boundaries between
conformity and individuality, sanity and madness, with devastating effect.
“The movie is iconic, one of my favorite movies of all time,” said Martin. “It’s about the quest for
individual freedom in the face of conformity, repression, and emasculation. It’s not just McMurphy’s
story, but all the other patients as well, especially Chief Bromden, who serves as a narrator of sorts.”
Chief Bromden is the seemingly deaf and dumb Native American who has been repressed and
forgotten by the system, much as his father had been. A big, strong figure, he sees himself as
powerless and small.
“McMurphy is the beacon of Individual freedom, and that’s why he resonates with the inmates, and
hopefully, the audience,” said Martin. “It’s the classic ‘one-person-against-the-system’ theme. There
is also this sexual tension between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched, and it all culminates in the climax
of the show. I believe the play explores a balance between a need for institutionalized, psychiatric
care, a medicated existence so to speak, and how that can violently clash with a patient’s taste for
individual freedom and liberty.”
Veteran CCftA actor Stephen Ross plays R. P. McMurphy. Ross appeared recently as Harry Brock in
“Born Yesterday” and Count Carl Magnus in “A Little Night Music” at Eventide Arts, and as Harry in
“Company” and Juror No. 8 in “Twelve Angry Men” at Cotuit Center for the Arts.
“Steve is a strong, seasoned performer, but I think the audience is going to see a different side of him
in this play,” said Martin.
Elin Hersch is Nurse Ratched. She played Fraulein Kost in “Cabaret” and Jolene in “Dirty Rotten
Scoundrels” at CCftA and Dusty Springfield in “Forever Dusty” at Harwich Junior Theatre.
Chief Bromden will be played by Dan Wehncke, who appeared in “Twelve Angry Men” and “Bleacher
Bums” at CCftA.
Adam Boauz, a newcomer to the Cape Cod stage, will play Dale Harding, one of the patients at the
mental hospital.
The cast includes 13 additional actors as patients, staff, and visitors. “We have a great cast,” said
Martin. “There was a lot of interest in the play, and many wonderful, qualified actors auditioned.”
Martin aims to bring the audience right into the mental hospital by extending the stage into the
audience so that, at times, there is no wall between actors and audience. Set design is by Richard
Neal.
“It’s going to be a multimedia experience,” said Martin. “We are using lighting and visual effects to
represent hallucinations and patients’ altered mental states, their mental illness. Richard Neal’s set
design is wonderful.”
“McMurphy unites the all mental patients,” said Martin. “’One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ explores
his relationships with Chief, Nurse Ratched, Harding, and the emotionally fragile Billy. He gives the
men a sense of life and ignites their souls by being a free spirit, a rebel, someone who breaks the
rules. He is able to push them out of their mundane existence and start to breathe in life again.”
Martin directed “Twelve Angry Men,” wrote, directed, and acted in “If Nothing Changes,” and
appeared as Father Flynn in “Doubt” and Beethoven in “33 Variations,” all at Cotuit Center for the
Arts.
Tickets are $25, $22 for seniors, and $20 for members. Premium tables with wine are available.
Cotuit Center for the Arts is at 4404 Route 28 in Cotuit. For more information, and to purchase tickets
call 508-428-0669, or visit artsonthecape.org.
# # #
What:
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” directed by Richard Martin
Where:
Cotuit Center for the Arts, 4404 Route 28, Cotuit
When:
April 14 to 26: Tuesday and Wednesday, April 14 and 15, 7:30 PM; Thursday, Friday, and Saturday,
7:30 PM; and Saturday and Sunday at 2 PM
Admission:
$25, $22 for seniors, and $20 for members
END