DEMOREST - The Piedmont College Department of Theatre will present “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” the Tony Award-winning play based on Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel of rebellion, April 9-12 in the Swanson Center Black Box Theatre.
Performances are scheduled for 7:30 p.m., April 9-11; and 2 p.m., April 12. General Admission tickets are $5. Piedmont College faculty, staff, and students are admitted free. Tickets can be purchased online at www.piedmont.edu/FA by clicking on “PC Theatre Schedule, or by calling the Piedmont College Box Office at 706-778-8500 ext. 1355. The Swanson Center is located at 365 College Drive, Demorest.
This production contains mild to graphic violence as well as adult content and language. Piedmont College Theatre suggests that no one under the age of 17 attend.
Constantly berated by a less than moral head nurse and her staff, the patients of the Oregon State Hospital are forced to face their demons and remain powerless in an endless vortex of manipulation. The one thing these patients need more than psychological help is a savior. They eventually find solace and mild freedom in a newcomer, R.P. McMurphy, who is trying to escape the drudgery of the work farm and prison. After his arrival and his constant rebellion against Nurse Ratched, the patients begin to break free of her manipulative nature and stand up for themselves once again. But how long will the “big nurse” allow this to continue?
Director Bill Gabelhausen said “Cuckoo’s Nest” is “a unique experience in environmental theatre. With the play taking place in the Swanson Center’s Black Box Theatre, the upcoming production is seen in the round, and the audience will quite literally be a in the hospital dayroom.” The New York Post has called the play “simply captivating,”
