Hexagon Players present – One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest
A play written by Dale Wasserman, based on the book by Ken Kesey.
Performance Times:
- Friday, Feb 12, 8pm (doors open 7:30, LOCK 8pm SHARP)
- Saturday, Feb 13, 8pm (doors open 7:30, LOCK 8pm SHARP)
- Sunday, Feb 14, 2pm (doors open 1:30, LOCK 2pm SHARP
Tickets available at: Riondel Market, CB School and Gray Creek Store,
February 1st and at Crawford Bay Market, Feb 2nd.
“They got wires runnin’ to each man and units planted in our heads. There’s magnets in the floor so we can’t walk no way but what they want. We got stone brains, cast-iron guts, and copper where they took away our nerves. We got cog-wheels in our bellies and a welded grin, And every time they throw a switch it turn us on or off.”
Such are the delusions of Chief Broom, an apparently catatonic patient in the asylum which houses a group of mentally unstable men under the firm hand of the soft spoken tyrant, Nurse Ratched. When a new inmate by the name of Randall McMurphy enters the scene, chaos ensues in this hyper-controlled environment and Broom’s delusions gain credibility.
The play is rough and the humour dark. When you catch yourself laughing, you might find a grimace behind the glee. The nurse’s sidekicks, Williams and Warren, are a case in point. They are pictures of wide-eyed innocence, but the way they slither onto the scene speaks of malice. More ambivalent is Dr. Spivey who shows glimmers of absent-minded humanity. The timid young nurse could be a force for good if she had any force within her.
Then there are the inmates: Scanlon the would-be bomber, Martini the delusional, Cheswick the truculent and cringing, Harding the effete, B-b-billy B-bibbit the mama’s boy, and Ruckly empty-eyed and foul of mouth. A sad crew of misfits.They are all fodder for McMurphy’s manipulations. The irony is that this great loud-mouthed, manipulative and over-sexed intruder is ultimately the greatest victim of the Combine – the evil machinations of modern society.
But then, there are the happy moments as two working girls, Sandra and Candy arrive late at night and climb through the window with booze for the night watchman and wedding bells for Billy Bibbit.
Actors in order of appearance: Geoffroy Tremblay, Arlo Linn, Zyan Fukushima-Rael, Amanda Ball, Zoe Zaiss-Baetzel, Galadriel Rael, Mandy Petrie, Ingrid Baetzel, Ries Fowler, Mauz Kroker, Robert Baldwin, James Linn, Ryan Davis, Carol VanR, Maria Latouf.
Directed by Doreen Zaiss and Carol VanR
Production: Ingrid Baetzel and Gef Tremblay
Sets and Stage Manager: Michelle Moss
Lights and Sound: Will Chapman