digitalbugsy

This is a stage production of the Ken Kesey novel of the same name, starring Christian Slater… who I must say looks a LOT like Jack Nicholson from the screen version, well same balding pattern anyway…

Our seats were in the very back row of the upper circle, with a perfect view of Slater’s bald spot, but that didn’t detract from what was a most excellent piece of entertainment. I’ve never actually read the story or seen the whole movie, so the story line was entirely new to me and had me hooked from the outset…

The interaction between Christian Slater’s McMurphy and Nurse Ratched is a fantastic power-play, both with very strong personalities. Each has their own strong card to play - McMurphy’s being his ability to get his fellow patients to open up and rise up against Ratched’s authority; and Nurse Ratched with her threats of ‘treatment’, which McMurphy doesn’t understand the extent of until much furthur down the path, at which point it is almost too late to turn back.

The first half was very much controlled by McMurphy, his antics giving Nurse Ratched a run for her money. It looks like she is going to snap at any point… The second half is very much controlled by Nurse Ratched, her authority and threats start to become reality, McMurphy is subjected to electric shock treatments, and he becomes very much more aware of the strength Ratched has but continues in his quest to make her snap, organising a party and for one of the inmates to lose his virginity. This becomes the last straw for Ratched and she goads McMurphy into attacking her… The result of the attack is the most extreme of ‘treatments’, McMurphy is lobotomised…

The entire story is dig at Mental Institutions of the time the story was writen. McMurphy is completely sane (in the broadest sense) with his institutionalisation a way of a not going to jail, and Ratched seeing insanity in everything he does, resulting in the most dire of situations…

Anyway,

Thanks Mark for organising this…

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 15th, 2004 at 10:15 pm and is filed under Theatre. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.