One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Written by Dale Wasserman; directed by Francisco Solorzano
The Center for Theatre Research (STUDIO 17) | 13 W 17th St, 3rd Floor, New York, NY 10011
April 30- May 17th, 2026
Photo Credit: Francisco Valera and Michele I. Arazi
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a stark reminder of the medical scene gone ballistic.
Randle P. McMurphy, a boisterous psych patient finds himself entrenched in the day-to-day havoc at a state mental facility. This year, McMurphy is portrayed by Sayra Player. Her visceral approach to leading the ensemble creates an intricate progression of gut-wrenching moments where medicine has gone wrong. Memorable performances are Jacqueline Knapp as Nurse Ratched. Though not an extraordinary evil, she is a firm disciplinarian who keeps the inmates from running the asylum.
Gender politics, game time hijinks, and power struggles are all called into question. With a script by Dale Wasserman, based on a novel by Ken Kesey, the story provides length to an all too timely story of survival within medical bounds. After a successful group meeting, planning for a carnival theme goes mad. It appears different than in a 1960s counter culture framework, where friendship matters. Verbal sparring is kept to a minimum, while physical action creates the misery of havoc where there was order. Immersive staging serves the drama. While the actors aren't astonishingly nude, jumping over audience members to be seen, there is plenty of action in the aisles, building tension, lending to a feeling of crisis to audience members who aren't beyond seeing another experiment in action.
As the ensemble descends further into a pharmaceutical drug haze, extreme inversion, or impossible aggression, Nurse Rached and her staff on duty secure the next round of treatment. Eventually, a former girlfriend visits the psych ward, taking a moment to rekindle her relationship with McMurphy before being invited to a private room with one of the male patients. It excites and angers, creating confusion, and an upsetting chain of events rallies the concerned inmates. McMurphy, who believes in keeping everyone happy, actually incites crime.
Responsibly directed for a mature audience by Francisco Solorzano, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest re-awakens our concerns about gender politics, security failures, and system nightmares. Spare but complete with hospital whites that provide coherence through every alarm, a successful possibility of order is created by Costume Designer Flores Galindo and Niluka Hotaling who designs the lighting. Francisco Solorzano sets the tone with Set and Sound. Fight direction is by Avalon Belle.
In the end, McMurphy dies at the hand of another in-patient, after receiving psychiatric treatment. Tragic and relevant, this murderous action is creepy, providing a punch in the gut to those optimists who believe that a hospital is a safe set where all will work out, over time.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest was produced by The Playground NY/LA, Barefoot Theatre CompaNY, and Pontiflex Production. It is running until May 17th at 13 West 17th Street in NYC.
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Published by Theatre Beyond Broadway on May 7, 2026. All rights reserved.