Theatre review: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

A LANDMARK American novel is recreated with purity and passion on stage at the Broadway Theatre. One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, by 60s rebel Ken Kesey, is a brutal but touching tale of life in a mental institution.

The sedated inmates' placid lives are all shook up by the arrival of Randle McMurphy, robustly played by Brian Timony.

McMurphy is clearly more rogue than lunatic, and spells trouble for the authorities, filling patients' heads with rebellion, gambling, parties and women.

Stage versions of this story have a hard act to follow: The 1974 film version, starring Jack Nicholson, won five Oscars.

This production, directed by Cameron Jack, stands up well.

The story is also a challenge to stage because some of its 60s counterculture themes, such as sexual liberation, seem out-dated now.

Another issue crucial at the time of writing was the use of lobotomy as treatment.

Some of the more troublesome patients have been cured' using this barbaric technique and the results are acutely painful to see, such as in the stumbling, drooling zombie Ruckley, played excellently by Stephen Rutterton.

In one funny scene this catatonic character is used as a basketball hoop by the other inmates.

Despite the play's grim setting, there is a sharp, black humour running through it.

The set evokes a bleak institutional picture; magnolia paint, fluorescent tubes and shadows cast by the window bars.

This production is elevated by the impeccable performances of characters when on the periphery of the action, such as the wonderful Martini (Mark Curtis) and the endlessly waltzing Turkle (William Charlton).

Helen Bang is commanding as the icy control freak Nurse Ratched (gleefully pronounced Ratshit by her charges) Her scary Hazel Blears rictus smile conceals an enigma is she genuinely concerned for her patients, or a fascistic sadist?

The play's only real weakness lies in the difficulties of an English cast playing American characters. Occasional slip-ups in pronunciation jar the excellent performances.

Over-all this cracking, intimate production gives Nicholson and his Oscar-laden Hollywood inmates a run for their money.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest, until April 8, Broadway Theatre, Catford Broadway, £7 - £10/£7 concs, box office 020 8690 0002.