Let’s Go Crazy
The NOLA Project electrifies the stage for the opening of its 10th season with a riveting production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” Director Mark Routhier does an outstanding job of bringing Dale Wasserman’s adaptation of the novel by Ken Kesey to vivid life.
This is one of the rare moments that I have truly felt that a cast has worked in perfect sync to create an amazing theatrical experience for the audience. Every member of this group of talented actors brings a vital balance to this show. The story follows our anti-hero R.P. Murphy played by Alex Martinez Wallace as he tries to take the easy way out of a work farm stint wrangling his way into a cushy institution stay (or so he thinks) by feigning mental instabilities. Wallace makes the role his as he generates a certain devilish charm to the role for which Jack Nicholson won an Oscar. Flying onto the set like a bull in a china factory, Murphy disrupts the orderly world of veteran Nurse Ratched played by Amy Alvarez. Even though Alvarez’s features are not as stern as Louise Fletcher (another Oscar winner), I believe it works more in her favor. Behind her sickly sweet smile and perfectly coiffed persona lays the duplicitous nature of a woman who does more harm than good to her patients’ well-being. It is refreshing to see Alvarez playing against type in a more chilling role than her normal caring natured characters.
The battle of wills of these two characters engulfs the lives of not only the staff, but the other patients on the ward. The actors portraying the other patients on the ward each bring a certain nuance to their character that play well against Wallace’s Murphy. The plight of the dismal state of care for mental health patients is seen starkly as you get to know all the patients and their purpose for being in the institution. Michael Aaron Santos as Chief Bromden is brilliant as a giant Native American who is fakes being both deaf and mute. Levi Hood is exceptional as the tragic Billy Bibbit terrorized by his mother on the outside and Nurse Ratched on the inside. A.J. Allegra as Dale Harding, the de facto leader of the patient’s counsel, lightens the heavy drama by providing most of the comedic lines. Unable to cope with his homosexuality, he adds a new dimension to the plight of these men.
The remaining patients are played by Sam Dudley, Michael Sullivan (who along with his imaginary friends garners lots of laughs) and Mike Harkins. Aiding Nurse Ratched is a various collection of aides and nurses who waffle between openly sadistic to uncaring witnesses. Kyle Daigrepont also is very good as an overworked Dr. Spivey who tries to help his patients, but in the end is just a submissive lackey. Even Kali Russell and Natalie Boyd as McMurphy’s “lady friends” do the utmost with the brief scenes they are in.
Bill Walker’s set design conveys the bleak, sterile atmosphere of the sanitarium. From the bars hanging around the perimeter to the gray metal furniture (except for the Chief’s rocking chair), even the set suggest sends a message of hopelessness.
“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” is local theatre at its best. Showtimes are Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 8pm and Sundays at 2pm through September 21, 2014 at NOCCA’s Nims Black Box Theatre located at 2800 Chartres Street, New Orleans LA 70117. For more information call 504-302-9117 or go to http://nolaproject.com.
Tony Leggio
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