McMurphy, fun-loving trickster with several assault convictions to his name, has once again gotten himself into trouble and is sentenced by the court. To escape labor duties in prison, he pleads insanity and is sent to a mental institution, assuming it will be a less restrictive environment. But tyrannical Nurse Ratched rules her psychiatric ward with an iron fist, keeping her patients cowed through abuse, medication and the threat of electric shock therapy. His arrival disrupts her regime, especially after he decides to oppose her rules on behalf of his fellow inmates. The battle of wills between the rebellious McMurphy and the inflexible Ratched soon turns into an exuberant, ribald and devastatingly honest portrayal of the boundaries between sanity and madness.
McMurphy is a slasher with a passion. With multiple convictions for assault and now in trouble with the law again, he pleads insanity. He'd rather serve a slightly crazy life in a mental institution than endure the raw mores of jail. The psychiatric ward is strictly run by Nurse Ratched: Patients are systematically intimidated, abused, and made docile through medication and electroshock therapy. "The New Guy" undermines her authority with his resistance and stands protectively in front of his fellow inmates. The raucous battle between the querulous McMurphy and the repressive Ratched is a harrowing portrait of the frontier of sanity and madness.
Text source and further information about this event: https://www.english-theatre.de/one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/
