Full cast announced for One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest

A star-studded cast including some of Australia’s most celebrated television, film and theatre performers will join already announced Lachy Hulme and Roz Hammond in One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, to be staged at Her Majesty’s Theatre, Melbourne for a strictly limited season from 23 May.

Making his Australian debut, Canadian Jeremy Proulx (BONES: An Aboriginal Dance Opera, King Lear, Red Forrest) will reprise the role of Chief Bromden, for which he won a BroadwayWorld.com award for Best Actor in a Play, for a production in Atlanta GA. Helpmann Award winner Bert La Bonté (The Book of Mormon, Cloudstreet, Kiss of the Spider Woman) will play Dr. Spivy & Aide Turkle. Home & Away star Lisa Gormley (The Gloaming, Bite Club) will play Candy Starr; Kirby Burgess (Barnum, Bring It On the Musical) will play Nurse Flynn. David James (Muriel’s Wedding, The Hollowmen, Jack Irish, The Sound of Music) will play Harding; Anton Berezin (Ragtime, Wicked) will play Scanlon. Grant Piro (Hairspray, Wentworth) will play Martini; Gerard Carroll (Folk, Proof, Wind in the Willows, Rake) will play Cheswick; NIDA graduate Thuso Lekwape (Anthem, Prize Fighter, Berlin Syndrome) will play Aide Washington and Dushan Phillips (The Gloaming, Fury, Romper Stomper, Angels in America) will play Aide Williams.

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest will see visionary director Tyran Parke bring the monumental Ken Kesey novel to life, reuniting him with set and costume designer Dann Barber and sound designer Michael Waters from last year’s critically acclaimed Barnum the Musical. Lighting design is by Trent Suidgeest.

“What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or somethin’? Well, you’re not! You’re not! You’re no crazier than the average asshole out walkin’ around on the streets and that’s it.”

An emotional rollercoaster, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest centres around a struggle for status between McMurphy and Nurse Ratched. A power-play between the two catapults audiences into a world of emotional button-pushing, chaos and rebellion. As we meet each patient and delve into their world, this play will both shock and delight in the most unexpected ways.

Playwright Dale Wasserman adapted One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest from the novel by Ken Kesey; the play opened on Broadway in 1963 with Kirk Douglas as McMurphy, Ed Ames as the Chief and Gene Wilder as Billy. In 1975, a film version helmed by Milos Forman was released and starred Jack Nicholas as Randle Patrick McMurphy and Louise Fletcher as Nurse Ratched.

You are invited to enter the asylum, take your seat and discover this timeless tale in a way you could have never imagined.

Season Details

Her Majesty’s Theatre, 219 Exhibition Street, Melbourne
From Saturday 23 May
Evenings: Wednesday – Sunday: Wednesday to Saturday, 7.30pm Matinees: Wednesday and Sunday, 1.00pm, Saturday, 2.00pm