One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, a play based on the novel by Ken Kesey published in 1962, opens for a four-day run at 7:30 pm, Thursday, Feb.22, at the Washita Theatre. The Chickasha Community Theatre production will also host a 2 p.m. performance on Sunday.
The play is set in an Oregon psychiatric hospital. The narrative of Kesey’s book serves as a study of institutional processes and the human mind, including a critique of psychiatry. It tells the story of Randle Patrick McMurphy, a rebellious criminal who pretends to be insane to avoid prison labor and is subsequently transferred to a mental institution. The play portrays his continual clash with the oppressive Nurse Ratched. She attempts to control and manipulate the patients with harsh, mechanical precision using electroshock treatments and sometimes a lobotomy.
The novel and play depict a harsh reality of mental health treatment and the patients’ constant struggle for freedom and dignity. Its film adaptation received an “R” rating which suggests that the content and is not suitable for children under 17 years of age.
The novel was adapted into the Broadway (and later off-Broadway) play by Dale Wasserman in 1963. Bo Goldman adapted the novel into a 1975 film of the same name. Directed by Miloš Forman the movie won five Academy Awards.
Time magazine included the novel in its “100 Best English-language Novels from 1923 to 2005”. In 2003 the book was listed on the BBC’s The Big Read poll of the UK’s 200 “best-loved novels.”