YOUNGSTOWN PLAYHOUSE 'Cuckoo's Nest' raises questions about authority

The play was written by Ken Kesey while he was working in a mental institution.
By L. CROW
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
The Youngstown Playhouse will open its 81st season with a classic dark comedy that has stood the test of time.
Joe Scarvell is excited to once again direct "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (he directed it back in the '70s for the Playhouse), and says there are many reasons to like it.
"I like the message," he says. "It deals with challenging the establishment. Nurse Ratched represents the 'illegitimate' establishment, and McMurphy represents the awkward absurdity of the rules."
The play is set in a ward of a mental institution.
It was originally written as a novel by Ken Kesey, published in 1962, while he was experimenting with LSD.
At the time he was working in a mental ward, and felt that many of the patients were not crazy.
The play was written in the early '70s by Dale Wasserman, then reworked into the current version. It was made into a very successful movie in 1975, starring Jack Nicholson, and won all five top Oscars.
Nurse Ratched
Molly Galano plays Nurse Ratched, and is thrilled to be playing this character because she finds her so challenging.
"Nurse Ratched is a tough nut to crack," Galano said.
"She is a fascinating character -- not very nice. I think she honestly believes in what she is doing. She is the head psychiatric nurse who has been there for 20 years and moved up the ladder. She represents the bureaucracy, but is she there to help people get well or to keep them sick? She is the big gun, and tells the others what to do, and as far as she is concerned, she is the one in charge. But there is the question of her interior self -- the 'who am I?' "
Galano also likes the whole play because of the questions it poses about the health care system. "This play will speak to people caught up in the health care system, the attitude of 'I know how to fix you,' " she said. "There is a question of how people are perceived as 'normal' and how much control we have over what is normal."
The admission of R.P. McMurphy to the ward is what changes the dynamics and challenges the system. "McMurphy comes in to mess up Nurse Ratched," Galano said. "He isn't crazy, he's more of a rebel. The police don't know what to do with him. He turns everything upside down. He gets the other patients to begin asking, 'why am I locked up in here?' He wants to topple Ratched so the others don't look at her as the be-all, end-all."
Galano is well known by local theater-goers. She recently won a Marquee Award for best actress in "Brighton Beach Memoirs," performed at the Playhouse.
McMurphy is played by John Cox, equally well-known as an actor, who won a best actor award for his role in "Block 5."
Metaphor
Scarvell said that the set will be a metaphor for the message of the play. "The set is an austere, conventional, traditional 'common room' of a mental institution," said Scarvell.
"There are bars on the windows, and the nurses' station hovers above the stage floor, to give that impression of 'Big Brother is watching' or 'don't ask questions.'
"The lighting will also help tell the story, with spotlights coming straight down, or up to cast shadows on the face."
This play is classified as a comedy, and both Scarvell and Galano agree that it is very funny, but dark, with serious moments.
Scarvell has been involved with theater for many years, including doing professional summer stock in New Hampshire with Thornton Wilder, back in the '60s. He also owned and operated a dinner theater about 20 years ago, and "did everything from directing to re-stocking toilet paper."