reviews.
Broadway World: Vivid, stylish One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at Spectrum Theatre Ensemble
“When Ken Kesey dropped acid while working as a night orderly in a mental health facility back in 1960, he had a revelation. Seeing the hospital and its patients with expanded perceptions convinced him that it was the institution, not them, that was "insane," and this insight animates his novel, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest." The Spectrum Theatre Ensemble has mounted a vivid, stylish production of Dale Wasserman's play that captures this spirit in a powerful evening of theater…” [Read More]
Motif: Spectrum’s Cuckoo’s Nest Takes the Stage Amidst National Conversation on Mental Illness
“On the very same day the Spectrum Theatre Ensemble opened its production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest at the Wilbury Theatre, in the kind of irony the poets dream of, the president expressed a desire to reopen mental institutions in order to combat mass shootings – the likes of which were largely shut down in the wake of the 1962 novel upon which the play and later the renowned film were based. While Cuckoo’s Nest is something of an historic piece at this point – patients with mental illnesses now have more rights, and treatments are generally less barbaric (not to mention the rampant misogyny within the story) – it also remains shockingly (no pun intended) relevant in the wake of this scapegoating by the president and many others…” [Read More]