Randle McMurphy is a petty criminal who fakes insanity to escape prison labour and is transferred to an asylum so that his mental health can be assessed. He assumes it will be a less restrictive environment, but he has not counted on Head Nurse Ratched who runs the psychiatric ward with an iron fist, keeping her patients cowed through abuse, medication and sessions of electroconvulsive therapy.

The rebellious McMurphy begins to rally his fellow patients in increasingly greater acts of defiance and autonomy and the rigid programme of the ward is thrown up for grabs. As the battle of wills between McMurphy and Ratched reaches its climax, McMurphy learns that the authoritarians have terrible ways of enabling you to conform.

Based on a literary classic, this stage adaptation by Dale Wasserman retains all the flair and humour of the novel together with its hallucinatory, surreal quality. It was later turned into a multi award winning film featuring Jack Nicholson.

In a world where sanity means conformity and following the rules is the only way to survive, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a powerful exploration of both the beauty and the danger of being an original.

Directed by Rachel Conyers, One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest is presented by Harrogate Dramatic Society.

• Tags