By Aline Mahrud

WORTH A LOOK?: *****

WHEN?: Thursday 2 April, opens 15 April and runs through 23 May 2026 RUNTIME: 160 minutes (including a 20-minute interval)

Film One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest starred a dynamic Jack Nicholson and won 5 Oscars in 1975 but director Clint Dyer (Death Of England: The Plays) has chosen instead to go back to the 1962 novel for inspiration.

• Read on for reasons including how those who thought they knew this story may just have their minds changed by this powerful and emotional reinvention

It’s narrated by Chief Bromden, a half-Native American patient at an Oregon psychiatric hospital who presents as deaf, mute and docile, and represents the effects of colonialism and how those in power collude to suppress those they view as threats.

Before curtain up it is explained that this is a 2nd preview and Olivia Williams (Mosquitoes, National Theatre) who is playing Nurse Ratched has only been with the production for 10 days after Michelle Gomez dropped out and will be reading off script for some of her role.

Aaron Pierre plays McMurphy, Jack Nicholson’s character, who arrives on Chief Bromden’s ward while faking mental health problems to serve his sentence for battery and gambling in the hospital rather than at a prison work farm.

He rebels against the strict rules of Nurse Ratched, upsets the ward’s routines and eventually inspires a rebellion during which the Chief finds his voice that will have life-changing consequences for many of those involved.

Dyer’s production is in-the-round as all the final productions in Old Vic artistic director Matthew Warchus’ last season at this venue are and from our front row seat we’re in amongst the patients on the ward as they respond to McMurphy’s arrival.

Pierre is charismatic but we also loved the strength in depth of the cast with Giles Terera (Oh Mary!, Trafalgar Theatre) especially good as Dale Harding, the unofficial leader of the patients before McMurphy’s arrival who’s struggling to repress his own homosexuality.

Kedar Williams-Stirling (Thanks For Having Me, Riverside Studios, Hammersmith) is also particularly moving as the stuttering virgin Billy Bibbit who has a fear of women, especially those with authority.

Gomez’s late departure could have unbalanced this new spin on a classic but, although we’re close enough to see the lines on the clipboard Williams’ Ratched occasionally carries, it doesn’t seem unreasonable that she would be doing so in her role and we expect the performance to grow as the new actress’s confidence climbs.

How society treats those patients deemed to have mental health problems feels like an issue very pertinent to today and this production may make you think again about One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

Those who thought it was all about Jack Nicholson’s character may just have their minds changed by this powerful and emotional reinvention.

• Main pictures via Facebook courtesy Old Vic Tickets
• Have you seen an Old Vic show before and what did you think of this 1? Let us know what you thought in the comments below
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