One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest Plays Shetler Studios

Synapse Theatre Ensemble commences its inaugural season with Dale Wasserman's "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" based on the novel by Ken Kesey on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, December 9,10,11,16,17 and 18 at Shetler Studios in the heart of Manhattan. This exciting new production tells the classic story of Randle P. McMurphy and the patients of Nurse Ratched's ward as they struggle against the oppression of the machine that rules their instutionlized lives. Starring Matthew Bayer, Suzy Kimball, Adam Petkus, Austin Kennedy, Tavis Doucette, Chris D'Amato, Pat Harman, Ian Cramer, Ricardy Fabre, Kevin Best, Bradley J. Sumner, Andrea Finlayson, Jeffery E. Milstein, Laura Duell and Lawrence C. Mays.

On the 50th anniversary of the first printing of the novel by Ken Kessey, "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" has never felt more relevant as Americans struggle against the machine that keeps us in check and has removed our revolutionary spirit.

Director Jeremy Benson: "I look forward to staging this iconic show with an extremely talented New York cast at a time when we need to remember what it feels like to stand up for ourselves, even if it means sacrificing everything. We are thrilled Shetler Studios is offering us the opportunity to present "One Flew..." in an intimate theatre of only 50 seats. There is no barrier between the audience and the characters on stage, and that is what we're [Synapse Theatre Ensemble] all about!"

James Wolcott, speaking on the 50th anniversary of the novel in the December 2011 issue of "Variety": "When I re-read it [One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest], it seemed more (curse the word) relevant than ever, the oppressive forces it mutinied against having only gotten more immersive and influential in our lives since McMurphy got zapped. Big Nurse has been supplanted by Big Pharma...And The Combine, the novel's metaphor for the silent machinery of social indoctrination, manipulation, and management, stands as a rough draft for the Matrix, the vision of modern existence as a holographic fraud, a covert information grid operating its own agenda."

Tickets are available from www.brownpapertickets.com for $20 or at the door for $22. All performance will take place at Shetler 1, 244 West 54th Street, 12th floor at 8pm."