It’s never an easy task getting a production onstage, let alone a play with the reputation and history of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. “Getting the rights to produce the play was the easy part,” explains Justin Hosking, co-founder of HST and playing the role of Billy Bibbit (the one with the stutter and mother complex). “The hard part was knowing we were competing with [the audience’s image of the movie. It’s an iconic film and because of that the play will always be compared to it, despite the play having come first. You’re going against the grain of people’s opinion but that recognition is what makes the play marketable and guarantees their will always be an audience for any Cuckoo’s Nest production.”
Like a double-sided coin, while audiences will flock to a theatre production they are familiar with they will instinctively judge the portrayal of the characters compared to what they remember from the film. “Personally, I haven’t seen the film in a really long time and I deliberately didn’t so I wouldn’t be subconsciously influenced. As an actor I want to put my own stamp on the character, my own interpretation. And that is all we can do and is the risk we take when playing characters that audiences have already met,” Hosking pauses, “I will have to watch the film once the season finishes though.”
For any independent theatre company, filling seats is always a daunting task. “If the show makes money, the actors make money but if it doesn’t then they don’t. That’s a lot of time and energy for no return, except of course the chance to do what we love,” says Hosking. “Mark (HST co-founder and playing the role of R.P McMurphy) and I started HST because we’re actors and we want to act. The company gives us the opportunity to do that and to pick work with parts that we’re interested in playing.”
Since the start of the company in 2006, HST have cut their teeth on a number of diverse theatrical productions, an iconic classic seemed the next logical step. “One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest was actually thrown to us a few years ago by someone trying to help us with money, of all things, and we threw it in the maybe pile but it wasn’t the right time for us. After doing Judas [Last Days of Judas Iscariot – HST’s 2010 production] and having worked successfully with such a large cast we reconsidered and thought we should do it. It’s sellable, well-written and it’s just had a revival at West End in London with Christian Slater so it’s in vogue again,” says Hosking. “But ultimately – great writing.”
With a cast of 15 characters, most of whom are onstage throughout the majority of the show, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest would be out of reach for most independent theatre companies. “Well, we worked with a bigger cast on Judas so we knew we could manage the numbers but the real kudos has to go to David Myles, the director, for managing a rehearsal schedule between 15 actors who also needed to work and have a life.”
