Would you be willing to rebel against authority – even if that authority was absolute? It’s a thought that comes up regularly while watching the RambaZamba theater production of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, which premieres tonight (20.10.2022) at the Kulturbrauerei. This stage version of Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel is directed by Leander Haußmann (credits include the 1999 comedy film “Sonnenallee”) who revives American playwright Dale Wasserman’s well-known adaptation. The plot will no doubt be familiar: locked up in an Oregon mental hospital, Randle Patrick McMurphy and his gang take on their ruler, the tyrannical, syringe-toting Nurse Ratched. The story is one of pills, straitjackets, shocking treatments and – in the end – youthful revolt. McMurphy and his fellow patients–turned–prisoners are played by RambaZamba’s inclusive ensemble, comprising actors with disabilities as well as amateur talent. The castmembers give charismatic performances in a pointedly anti-authoritarian drama that’s as gripping as it is harrowing.
Text: Benji Haughton / Photos: Phillip Zwanzig & Andi Weiland
RambaZamba at the Kulturbrauerei, Schönhauser Allee 36–39, 10435 Berlin–Prenzlauer Berg; map
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest premieres tonight (20.10.2022), 19h30
@rambazambatheater
