Review: Gritty, Solid CUCKOO'S NEST at York Little Theatre

If you've seen the film, ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO'S NEST, based on the novel by Ken Kesey, you haven't seen the play; Dale Wasserman's 1963 Broadway adaptation of the book is a very different animal, and the movie is related to the book, but not to the play. Kirk Douglas, Gene Wilder, and William Daniels were in the original production; revivals included Danny DeVito and Gary Sinese (the Sinese production won a Tony for Best Revival of a Play).

When it first opened on Broadway, critics hated it. And it's a rough show to love, but in the early 1960's it was especially so. It was thought tasteless and frightening - and coming out of the McCarthy era, what could be worse than a play preaching the evils of enforced conformity and the brutal punishment doled out to those who would attempt a little independence from a boxed-in norm?

At York Little Theatre, director Jack Hartman and cast are asking the same questions Kesey and Wasserman did. They're certainly questions about mid-twentieth century treatment of mental patients and its brutality, but there's a broader theme. Why is conformity needed - or is it - and how do we handle people who don't stay inside the box we've constructed for them? Kesey had worked in a mental hospital and saw the treatment of patients and the enforcement of conforming behavior first-hand, something people don't enjoy recognizing, and, coming through the McCarthy era into the Civil Rights era, his work, and the play, strongly question all regimented social control through the depiction of a group of complacent mental hospital inmates, a dictatorial nurse, and a rebel who's chosen what he thinks will be a cushy hospital vacation over the discomfort of prison.

Bob Haag is a strong, convincing Chief Bromden, the faking-deaf-mute half-Native patient who semi-narrates the story. His journey to freedom through the sacrifice of rabble-rouser Randle P. McMurphy is one of the side lights of the story, and Haag's Chief can be seen growing bigger and stronger throughout the production. McMurphy, the lead, is played by David Kloser, and comes in and remains a troublemaker, a thorn in the side of any leader who wants the people under them to stay in line. While it might look as if McMurphy is merely fighting for his right to party, there's much more to it than that, especially when he discovers the real stakes of the mental health sentence for criminals. Kloser has the air of the wild man who's finally found a hill he really can't climb when the stakes reach their highest point.

Jaci Keagy handles the lead villain part, that of Nurse Mildred Ratched, with a fine sense of the part. Ratched is easily an over the top character, with a Snidely Whiplash edge, so she's really at her most menacing when played perfectly calmly and rationally rather than with that clearly evil edge. If she's like anyone, it's a scheming, lying politico who's shaking your hand and smiling while putting the screws to you, when you can do nothing about it. Keagy plays that line, at her most charming when prescribing shock therapy or lobotomy for institutional social control.

Rob Allison's Dale Harding, former leader of the patients until McMurphy's arrival, is, as the part requires, charming and deferent to authority, not quite pompous, wanting to keep things on an even keel - but excited to see the clash of titans between Ratched and McMurphy. It's a smaller part, but Allison handles it nicely. His out-loud proclamation of Nurse Ratched as "an angel of mercy" is one of the most weighted lines in the show, and colors the entire proceedings. Did he believe that until McMurphy arrived, or is he just an expert at diplomacy? Allison has to be watched for the decision to be made.

It's a strong production, with no difficulty keeping the audience watching closely. Solid performances, tight direction, and a startlingly realistic dayroom set make that easy. You won't say you love the book of this show - you can admire its writing, you can wrestle with what it forces you to consider, and you can appreciate a solid, worthy production like this one. But this is drama, in fact, at its strongest and in many ways bleakest; it's thought provoking, not relaxing. Doing this show is York Little Theatre doing the hard, and important, work of drama, stimulating audience minds rather than merely entertaining them. If seeing this production helps you question why things in the mental health system, or the country, are the way they are, and whether it isn't worth it to at least tweak the lion's tail occasionally to try to fight for change, YLT has not only produced art but done the community a huge service.

At York Little Theatre through May 8. Next up, THE KING AND I in June. Visit YLT.org for tickets and information.

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