BWW Reviews: CUCKOO'S NEST Offers A Light at the End of Repression's Tunnel

Who makes the rules, and why do they make the rules they make? Who defines what is normal? To what lengths will the wardens of men go to enforce their rules and suppress voices of dissent? To what extent will (must) the iconoclast go to preserve his freedom?

The asylum is a preternatural metaphor for society ~ the cage in which the combat between the tamer and the beast unfolds with everlasting clarity about how the deck is stacked in favor of the former. Is there perhaps something in us that views this circus of wits with more than a bit of sympathy for the beast ~ and a craving for a savior?

If you haven't left a production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest asking these questions, then maybe you need to watch again. Theater Works, in its current production of Ken Kesey's opus, adapted for the stage by Dale Wasserman and directed by Ben Tyler, makes a compelling case for revisiting this biting and poignant story of the iconic antihero, Randle P. McMurphy and his close encounter with the iconic control freak, Nurse Ratched.

A stage portrait of this classic competition between the two unrelenting forces of control versus freedom requires equally gripping performances that capture the distinctive pathos and pathology of each. Cathy Dresbach and Matt Zimmerer deliver on all counts; they are the fire and ice of this stirring drama.

Ms. Dresbach, brilliant as always, nails the role of Nurse Ratched ~ the steely-eyed ice queen of the ward, cold and calculated in demeanor and direction, perfectly postured in nurse whites but hardly an angel of mercy.

Mr. Zimmerer, in marked contrast, is a forceful stage presence, magnetic in his portrayal of McMurphy ~ an over-the-top huckster of fun and rebellion, relentless in his determination to crack Ratched, seducing his compatriots into acts of sabotage and declarations of independence from arbitrary authority. Having witlessly confined himself to the asylum as an alternative to the prison farm, McMurphy is ensnared in a Kafkaesque web from which he may not be able to extricate himself. The alternative is to man the barricades and bring the queen bee to her knees.

McMurphy's army is comprised of the wounded and belittled souls of the Patient's Council, whose treatments are delivered in cups of pills and jolts of electric shock and denial of privileges.

Their real deliverance, however, may be found in a man who may offer another path to sanity, balance, and perhaps salvation. Such possibility is revealed in a poignant moment between McMurphy and Chief Bromden, the erstwhile narrator of the play. The Chief wants to know if McMurphy is going to back down, and, in the course of their exchange, expresses doubt about his own strength. The Chief implores McMurphy to make him big again. McMurphy: "Why, hell, Chief, looks to me like you growed half a foot already!" Chief Bromden: "How can I be big if you ain't? How can anybody?"

A cast of finely portrayed characters rounds out this well-crafted production of Cuckoo's Nest ~ most notably Peter Hart as the tightly wound but immensely vulnerable Dale Harding, the chair of the Patient's Council; Charles Campbell as Martini, the stirred but easily shaken paranoid; Michael LeSueur as the chronic, nailed to an illusory cross, drooling and spitting concise epithets; Tony Latham as the stuttering and suicidal Billy Bibbit; Beau Heckman as the manipulable shrink for the ward; and Abel Zerai and T.A. Burrows as the hospital aides.

Theater Works' production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest continues its run at the Peoria Center for the Performing Arts through April 19th.

Photo credit to Theater Works

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