The Old Vic presents a bold new staging of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, directed by Clint Dyer. Here are six things you need to know about the play.
Time to read 1 Minute
Author The Old Vic
Published 11/12/2025
The story is told by long-standing patient, Chief Bromden
Chief Bromden has been a patient at a psychiatric facility in Oregon for years. None of the staff or fellow patients think he can speak or hear and he’s happy to keep things that way.
Away from watching eyes and listening ears he rails against ‘The Combine’ — his term for the machine that runs society, re-wiring brains, stripping away feeling.
Nurse Ratched runs her ward with an iron fist
At the facility, Nurse Ratched is in charge.
She’s a powerful woman, managing a group of men in a patriarchal society. She believes her patients need stability, structure and discipline to be fulfilled. But is the honesty she wields at regular group therapy part of their cure or a way of keeping them subdued?
A free-spirited provocateur fights back
The ward is running just as Ratched likes it, until Randle P. McMurphy appears.
He’s been reallocated from a labour camp, where he was serving time. The gambler and provocateur hates authority, in whatever form it takes. McMurphy’s arrival destabilises Ratched’s control of her patients, starting a rebellion fought as a pitched battle of wills.
Aaron Pierre and Giles Terera lead the cast
Aaron Pierre (Rebel Ridge, Mufasa: The Lion King) plays the rebellious McMurphy and Giles Terera (Hamilton, Othello) is Dale Harding, the proclaimed leader of the patients.
They’re joined by an outstanding ensemble cast.
It’s based on an era-defining novel by Ken Kesey
Ken Kesey’s 1962 novel captured the spirit of America in the 1960s. It tells the story of a struggle between the authority of the established order and the rebellion of free spirits.
Kesey’s story inspired a stage adaptation by Dale Wasserman the following year and the 1975 film, directed by Miloš Forman and starring Jack Nicholson.
You’ll experience the story in a powerful new light
Director Clint Dyer (Death of England, Othello) revisits the exploration of injustices in the original novel. Kesey’s story shines a scathing spotlight on American colonialism. Dyer reintroduces these urgent themes for a new audience.
Like all our 2026 productions, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest will be staged In The Round, placing you even closer to the action.
