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"Cuckoo's Nest" Coming ~

JOAN O'HARA, John Kavanagh, Paddy Scully and Ray McAnally in a scene from the Noel Pearson presentation, " One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", which at the moment is packing them in to Dublin's Gaiety Theatre. ,

Cork theatregoers will be delighted to learn that this play by celebrated

· American author Dale Wasserman, from the famous ·novel by Ken Kesey, is to be staged at the Cork Opera House in October for a two-week run.

John Kavanagh takes the role of uMcMurphy", the part which earned an Academy Award for Jack Nicholson in the film version of ihe book.

Kavanagh's performance has been described by critics as one of the best things seen on the Dublin stage for a long while. Playing opposite him In the demanding role of "Nurse Fleteher'' Is .loan

. O'Hara, who won great credit for her role In the prizewinning television play uoeeply Regretted". This part also secured an

Oscar for Louise Fletcher in the film version. ·

Both Kavanagh and Miss O'Hara, Incidentally, appear by courtesy of the · Abbey Theatre Ltd.

Raj McAnally, accom­plished veteran of multi­talents (who had a happy association with Kavanagh In the television series "The Burke Enigma") gives a powerful per­formance · as fellow llainate "Dale Harding'*. Cut as "Chier', the Indian who befriended "Mdlarphy", is Liam Meeaon, who reeently woa praise forMs

part in "I Do Not Like Tnee ( Dr. Fell" at the Everyman • Theatre.

Also taking prominent parts are such well-known artistes as Christopher · Casson, Tom Rickey, Stephen Brennan, Des Nealon, Danny Reardon, Madelyn Erskine, Tom Pollard, Susan Slott, ~ Terence Riley, Brld 1 Brennan and Paddy Scully. l

' The play Is dlreeted by Pat Laffan, with detlp ., QJ.entla Mitchell a •

Uag In tlae .Jaaadl of ToDJ Wakefield.

... theatre ... radio ... tv ...

"Cucko 's Nest" Opens On Monday,

THE long awaited Noel Pearson presentation "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest", which took Dublin by storm early this summer Is to open at the Cork 0 pera House on Monday next, October 8.

" One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," which was

.writ t en b y D a l e Wasserman from the novel by Ken Kersey was first produced in New York at the Cort Theat re on November 13, 1963.

The cast included Kirk Douglas as "McMurphy" and Gene Wilder as "Billy

·Bibbit." However thi s production was no t a major theatrical success Jlnd it was not until its off. Broadway revival at the M e r ce r - H a n s b erry Th ea tre on Mon d ay, March 22, 1971 that the play became a major theat­rical hit in America.

In , 1976 the mot ion picture of "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" was produced by Saul Zaentz and Michael Douglas -son of Kirk Dougla who initially acquired the film .rights.

Th Irish production opened at the G iety Theatre , Dublin on Wednesday, J une 27, with John Kavanagh in the 1 ading role and after a slow start built up to become the greate t theat· rlcal event of the y ar.

Thi produ tion i

directed by Abbey-based Patrick Laffan with de s igns by Que11tin Mitchell, well known for his RTE work, and with l i ghting by Tony Wakefield.

The coming Cork presentation is identical with the DI.Jblin produc· tion save for a few cast changes.

John Kavanagh, an a rti s te of tremendous esteem whose past work in Cork includes the "M.C." in "Cabaret" - also a Noel Pearson presentation -h as won tremendous praise for his playing of "Mc¥urphy" the asylum inmate who perhaps is not as daft as he looks or acts.

Pl a ying opposite Kavanagh, as the shrill a nd fe a'rsome Nurse Ra tched who beneath it all seems to have a sort of rapport for "McMurphy" is Joan O'Hara, whose many achievements in the e nt e rt a inm e nt world include a splendid perfor· ma nce a s the English "wife" of an Irish emig­rant in Maeve Binchy's g ripping play "Deeply Regretted" on RTE televi· s ion las t yea r .

Ray McAnally, another actor with a big following in Cork is cast in the other important leading male role of Dale Harding, the sensitive intellectual.

Stephen Brennan plays the suicidal Billy Bibbit while o t he r important parts are taken by Des Nealon, Tom Hickey, Kate Thompson, Philip O'Sul· !iva n, Danny Reardon, Charlie Roberts, Larry

John Kavanagh and Ray MacNally In a scene from "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest".

Murphy, Frank Twomey, Terence Riley, Donall Farmer, Madelyn Erskine, Tony Lyons, Susan Slott and Rani Govender.

"One :Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" will be presented nightly at 8 p.m. and early bo king is advis­able.

Over The Cu koo' Ne t ." You've read the book, seen the film, now go along to the Opera House and experience the play. 1 have done all three and each in its own way, book, film and play, i ·,though of course thematically the same, diffe­rent. Well , naturaUy, I only bring it up at all because it would be a pity if, having read the book or seen the movie or enjoyed both, you missed out on this produc­tion at the Opera House. On its own merits, direction, playing and that special chemistry flowing between living stage and audienct., it recharges as it were the theme through other kinds of interpretative skills.

In that regard, I am thinking particularly first in terms of the overall direction by Patrick Laffan and then the individual contributions of the large cast, each a telling motif in the terrifying canvas - if there was a

weakness novel and the film, it might be in that the presence of the two male attendants carries less threat, atmospherically speaking, than they might and as they certainly do in the book and on the screen. A quibble - well, perhaps? ·

In this loony bin, madhouse, asylum, sanatorium, cuckoo's nest we, the so called "sane", are confronted with individuals who, for one reason or another, are considered unfit, or who consider them­selves unfit, to participate in "normal" society. They are in fact drop-outs, not totally psychotic, but , rather, ·playing themselves into psychotic roles to escape from the outside world . The business of the clinic is to rehabilitate them, to perform the act of exorcism or catharsis, to return to them the life force their neuroses has retarded and is about to destroy.

Tragically, ad in the main due to the ambient person­ality of a certain "Nurse Ratchet," aided and abetted by a system structured on the ghastly mechanics of sedation, "talking it all out'' se::;s ions, electric shock treatment and, in some

in s tances, the murderous lobotomy, fears , guilts, inadequacies are cocooned in a cloying web of will-sapping rules, in which, sooner or later, the psuedo-psychotic is more apt to progress into the genuine article then to be cured.

Either herself the victim of the system or because of psychotic motivations in her own nature, "Nurse Ratchet" spins and thickens the cocoon irrevocably -that is until the entry of the anarchistic principle, in the person of one " Randle P. McMurphy," the elan vital, hall-raiser, dispenser of life, rule and law breaker and, in the circumstances, healer of wills.

In this morality the puritan is confronted by its antithesis - the figure of celebration and -dare I say it- of love.

In the character of "Chief Bromden, " a displaced Indian , himself hiding behind deafness and speech­lessness, but still alive in memory and imagination, we are made further aware of this destructive machine as his mind expresses itself over the speakers - a role impressively played by Liam Neeson.

As the wild man, t orce of nature, " McMurphy," John Kavanagh is a superbly cathartic rebel; as the " Ratchet" Joan O'Hara neatly · blends pseudo concern with sadism and the tainted intellectual "Dale Harding" is evoked by as fine a performance as I have ever experienced from Ray McAn­ally - indeed, in my opinion, the finest performance of the show; also, excellent work from Philip O'Sullivan

· ("Billy Bibbit"), Danny Reardon ("Martini"), Des Nealon ('Scanlon"), Tom Hickey ("Cheswick"), Terence Rilet (doctor), and from Madelyn Erskine and Rani Govender as the pair of "chicks". A nice cameo from

·Donal Farmer ("Aide Turkle") and from Charlie Roberts a horrifying image of the lobotomised victim.

Since one of "McMur­phy's" weapons is laughter there is lot of it - though I did wish on th night that the audience was apter at distin­guishing between the fun and the horror ...._ but, I suppose, it is the prerogative~ of punters to indulge them­selves, if that is their nature, in insensitivity. Or, perhaps, this, too, was catharsis at work!