Intense Performance Makes ‘Cuckoo’s Nest’ Believable

“One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest,”

Friday, Dec. 1, West Central Community Center

The atmosphere of the mental ward is unnervingly real in Rogue Players’ strong production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Even before the play starts, we feel as though we are walking into a mental institution, circa 1960s. Even our tickets say: “Day Pass, Brookside Mental Ward.” The furnishings are strictly institutional drab. Soothing music is piped in over the sound system. Burly aides walk around in starched white outfits.

And when the play starts, the feeling grows. One character talks incessantly to an imaginary friend. Another strikes a Christ-on-the-cross pose for 20 minutes at a time. Heads bob up and down; hands flap.

Director Frank Sullivan and producer/set designer John Brooks have turned us into eavesdroppers on the Brookside day room.

Sullivan put a great deal of thought and imagination into this Dale Wasserman adaptation of Ken Kesey’s classic novel. The acting isn’t of professional caliber and the technical production is rough, but the intensity and commitment make for gripping theater.

The sense of realism isn’t by accident. Some of the cast members have worked in the mental health field. Others, such as Richard Sprague, who plays Chief Bromdon, have been there as clients. Sprague, in particular, brings an uncommon depth of feeling to his role, which makes up for any lack of acting experience (this is his first role). His spotlighted monologues, in which he mourns the loss of the salmon from the river, and the loss of his own freedom, are moving and effective.

And besides, he looks the part.

As Randle McMurphy (the Jack Nicholson role in the movie), Troy Burke is a whirling dervish of energy. Burke swaggers through the part like a combination of Nicholson and the young Brando, always moving, always thinking, always scheming. Sometimes I wanted Burke to tone it down a touch - he does tend to chew the scenery sometimes - but he did succeed in giving this play a jolt of pure nervous energy at its center.

As Nurse Ratched, Terri DeMaris was a calm counterweight to McMurphy. She was unflappable, in control and sternly domineering. I would have liked to see her show a bit more menace, or some contained fury, although I have to admit that there is something sinister about seeing a nice Nurse Ratched. Sometimes, it made her seem even more tyrannical.

The best performance of all was by Ben Dyck as the timid Billy Bibbit. Dyck perfectly captured Bibbit’s stutter, his fear of his mother, his fear of life. He is torn between wanting to rebel from his mother and being terrified to rebel. His final scene, in which Ratched coldly threatens to tell Billy’s mother about his sexual escapades with Candy Starr, was a heartbreaker.

The entire ensemble did an exemplary job of portraying the odd, surreal and sometimes comical community of a mental ward. None of the actors went over the line into caricature; none appeared to be patronizing.

Even the two aides, Jhon Goodwin and J. Lewis Ward, were completely believable as a certain mental ward type: orderlies as bouncers/bullies.

This production goes to show that empathy, energy and a true feel for a play’s message will outshine jaded professionalism any day.

, DataTimes MEMO: “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” Rogue Players at the West Central Community Center, continues through Dec. 16. Call 327-9907 for tickets.