OTP's 'Cuckoo's Nest' loyal to book

By KIERSTIN RESZKA
Special to the Record-Eagle

January 09, 2009 12:00 am

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TRAVERSE CITY -- Author Ken Kesey controversial-then-classic 1962 novel, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest," has been a stage play and an Oscar-winning movie.

Now it's on the mainstage at the Old Town Playhouse.

"My vision," says director Chris Cooke, "is to bring justice to the book."

Cooke was adamant in directing the play from the original perspective of the novel and took great care in exploring not only the characters but also the book. He researched Kesey and the stage adaptation and views both the process and the book as art.

The book recounts Kesey's experiences as an employee of a mental health facility as well as his experiences with psychoactive drugs and electroconvulsive therapy.

The story is seen through the eyes of Chief Bromden, played by Dale Chandler in the Old Town Playhouse production, whose many years at the facility have left him disenchanted and suffering from more neuroses than he had to begin with.

When Randle McMurphy, played by Noel Boulter, arrives at the hospital in an attempt to avoid jail time for some sleazy misdeeds, he thinks the asylum will be time less wasted. He quickly realizes that under the reign of Nurse Ratched, played by Rose Hollander, his plan may be backfiring.

"I tend to be a nice person and this gives me a chance to be evil," laughs Hollander of her surly character.

This will be Hollander's first OTP experience. In years past she's performed with the Riverside Shakespeare troupe and the Leelanau Players.

Although the play is at times hilarious, it's also intense. The cast was able to break the ice and bond over sweets courtesy of Hollander's baking skills.

In real life, with her kind smile and understanding tones, Hollander is nothing like her fictional counterpart.

McMurphy's character is equally complicated, director Cooke explains. McMurphy doesn't see the mental illness but the human beings who surround him, in all of their mortality. He becomes their unsung hero of sorts through his insinuating power that at times seems to catch the antagonistic Nurse Ratched off-guard.

"He's multidimensional," explains Boulter, a downstate transplant, of what he describes as his most challenging and taxing role thus far. "I'm still exploring McMurphy through myself."

Says Cooke, "McMurphy, although he doesn't realize it, is a savior for a lot of these people."

The fascination in "Cuckoo's Nest" isn't just the back and forth between the antagonist and protagonist but the psychological dissection of each character -- from the intense fear of losing control that drives Nurse Ratched to the oppressive atmosphere of the facility that has turned many of the patients into the very worst version of themselves.

A mainstay of the show will reflect this in "Chief's Nightmare," which will involve three levels on the stage where Native American music and dance will be performed to reveal aspects of Chief's life while the levels will represent different hierarchies that patients will try to ascend.

As for the production, it's been far from a nightmare. The cast agrees that it's not just the rumballs and cookies that they'll miss once all is said and done, but the day-to-day interaction with one another. As Boulter puts it, "Us theater folk have a lot in common. We're a family."

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