theater
BY RICK LEVIN
Nurse Ratched (Sabra Slade) crashes the
party in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
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Keeping with Kesey
BUY ONLINE :
Cuckoo’s Nest restores novel’s vision
www.HultCenter.org
OR CALL FOR TICKETS :
541-682-5000
EUGENE BALLET COMPANY PRESENTS
This Weekend!
Alice In Wonderland
Saturday, February 12 at 7:30 PM
Sunday, February 13 at 2:00 PM
SILVA– Tix: $48-$22; St, Y
Alice’s trip down the rabbit hole introduces her to the White Rabbit,
the Mad Hatter’s wacky Tea Party, the court of the Queen of Hearts and
ends in a lobster quadrille with the Mock Turtle and Gryphon.
Free Ballet Insider pre-talk in The Studio, 45 minutes before each performance.
EUGENE SYMPHONY PRESENTS
Scheherazade
Thursday, February 17 at 8:00 PM –SILVA– Tix: $59-$15;
St, Y
A musical potpourri of orchestral showpieces, this concert features Dvorák’s
rambunctious Carnival Overture and Rimsky-Korsakov’s stirring Scheherazade.
Plus, audience favorites, Dean Kramer and Claire Wachter, join the orchestra
in a performance of Poulenc’s charming Concerto for Two Pianos.
SHO PRESENTS
Third Annual SHO Wine Tasting
Saturday, February 19 at 4:00 PM –LOBBY– Tix: $15
21 & OVER
The Hult Center’s non-profi t membership organization, presents its annual
fundraising event. Enjoy tastings from fi ve regional wineries, light catering,
samples from local chocolatiers, a silent auction and live entertainment.
EUGENE SYMPHONY PRESENTS
Cirque de la Symphonie
Sunday, February 20 at 2:30 PM
SILVA– Tix: $80-$15; Y
This concert has it all: power, grace, beauty, and athleticism!
Don’t miss a minute of this spectacular event, highlighting
unbelievable physical feats and amusing circus antics
by jugglers, acrobats and aerialists.
ENTERTAINMENT ON SALE:
THE SHEDD INSTITUTE PRESENTS
EUGENE OPERA PRESENTS
ALICE IN
WONDERLAND
Imagination Movers (SILVA- March 2)
Aria Auction & Gala (SILVA- March 4)
WELLS FARGO BROADWAY IN EUGENE PRESENTS
The New Musical Wicked (SILVA- April 20–May 1)
Tickets on sale, Friday, Feb. 11 at 8 AM : Phone, Window, Online & EMU Outlet
HULT TICKET OFFICE HOURS:
Tue-Fri, 12- 5 PM ; Sat, 11 AM –3 PM
ONE HOUR BEFORE PERFORMANCE MON-SAT, TWO HOURS BEFORE ON SUN.
UO TICKET OUTLET IN THE EMU:
Mon-Fri, 9 AM –5 PM
32 FEBRUARY 10, 2011
EUGENE WEEKLY
M
ention One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest anywhere outside
the Pacifi c Northwest, and the
image you’ll spark in most folk’s mind is
Jack Nicholson leering like a salty sailor
beneath a navy blue stocking cap. Fair
enough. As with his maniacally outsized
role in The Shining, Nicholson tattoos
himself all over director Milos Forman’s
adaptation of Ken Kesey’s classic novel —
hooting, hollering, cajoling and otherwise
cantering around with bulging eyes and
gonads the size of bowling balls. It’s a
strong performance in a decent movie
that paints its strident social commentary
in broad, manipulative strokes. But it’s
hardly what Kesey intended when he wrote
the book.
Apparently what most upset Kesey,
aside from fi nancial issues, was the fact
that Nicholson’s bravura performance stole
the focus away from big Chief Bromden,
who narrates the novel. The current
staging by LCC’s Student Productions
Association, based on Dale Wassermann’s
script, goes a long way in restoring
Kesey’s original vision of a society that,
in the words of LCC director Chris Pinto,
sometimes blurs the line “between sanity
and insanity.” It’s a lovely production,
vital and redemptive, which is all the more
impressive for our deep familiarity with
the story. The frenetic, furious pace of the
fi lm is replaced by a more measured and
melancholy rhythm that leavens its tragic
message with bittersweet humor and wry
ambivalence.
The mood is set from the opening scene,
which fi nds Chief Bromden (the excellent
Kunu Dittmer) standing alone on stage,
addressing his dead father. To the tone-
deaf, the Chief’s meditations — about
the “combine” that controls the world’s
outcasts with magnets and wires — might
sound like paranoid ravings, but they are
in keeping with the traditions of Native
American storytelling, which animates
the wide world with spirit and intention.
These soliloquies open nearly every scene,
working to frame the story as a timeless
fable open to endless interpretations and
retellings.
Directed with economy and fl air
by Pinto, the production is propelled
by strong performances all around. At
the heart of Cuckoo’s Nest are three
archetypical characters — the spirited R.P.
McMurphy, the dwarfed Chief Bromden
and the uber-uptight Nurse Ratched, a
“ball-buster from way back” — and here
each role is performed with uncommon
sensitivity and nuance. As McMurphy,
Johnny Rogers is less antagonistic than
righteously empathetic, his actions fueled
not by ego but humanity and a sense of
injustice. Sabra Slade’s Nurse Ratched,
with her pinched restraint and passive-
aggressive condescension, brings to mind
the psychosexual terror of Judith Anderson
in Hitchcock’s Rebecca. Dittmer gives
a powerhouse performance as the Chief,
a haunted, misunderstood man perfectly
in tune with his surroundings. And a
special nod should go to the superb Steven
Coatsworth, who plays the aristocratic
inmate Dale Harding.
One could argue that Kesey’s story is
dated — that we no longer scramble the
brains of our undesirables with ice-pick
lobotomies. Not so. Despite its particular
setting, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,
like The Great Gatsby or Mrs. Dalloway,
has stood the test of time. We may have
exchanged pre-frontals for Prozac and
shock therapy for Celexa, but the grinding
of individual gems into collective dust
remains as rampant as ever. Whether
you’re fl ying from the east or from the
west, don’t miss this cuckoo’s nest. It’s a
jolt to the system.
ew
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest plays 8pm Thursday
through Saturday, Feb. 10-12 & Feb. 18, with 2pm
matinees Sunday, Feb. 13 & Feb. 19-20, at LCC’s Blue
Door Theatre, 4000 E. 30th Ave.; $10, $8 sen. & stu.,
tickets at www.lanecc.edu/tickets or 463-5761.
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