"One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" Starts LIC Run on Friday

It first hit the literary scene in 1962, when arguments about deinstitutionalization were raging. The book’s author, Ken Kesey, researched the subject by interviewing patients while working as an orderly in a mental health facility in California. (He also claimed that he took a variety of mind-altering drugs as part of his research.)

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest tells the story of life at a psychiatric ward via narration by a huge, Native American inmate who is believed to be deaf and mute. The head nurse, Mildred Ratched, rules with an iron fist, but she constantly butts heads with the ever-rebellious patient Randle Patrick McMurphy, who faked insanity to avoid prison for various crimes.

This week, Cuckoo’s Nest comes to Queens. More information and another image are on the jump page.

This book inspired a film which won five Academy Awards and a play, adapted by Dale Wasserman, that debuted on Broadway in 1963 and then played around the world, even as far away Japan. On April 10th, this mind-expanding drama starts a 15-show run at The Chain Theatre in Long Island City. This version is presented by Variations Theatre Group, an independent company that strives to present intellectually engaging plays full of visceral, raw emotion, under the guise of Greg Cicchino, the Chain’s in-house managing director.

Details: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, The Chain Theatre, 21-28 45th Road, Long Island City, April 10th through April 25th, (performances run Wednesday-Saturday at 8 pm with additional 2 pm matinees on Saturdays and Sundays), $18.