Gary Sinise in the 2001 revival

In 1963, one year after Ken Kesey's bestseller novel was published, Dale Wasserman's stage adaptation made its Broadway premiere, running through 1964. Since then, the play has had two revivals: the first an off-Broadway production in 1971, the second a Broadway production in 2001 with Gary Sinise as McMurphy. Ken Kesey (September 17, 1935 – November 10, 2001) was an American author, best known for his novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, and as a (counter) cultural figure whom some consider a link between the beat generation of the 1950s and the hippies of the 1960s. ... Dale Wasserman, a prolific writer of drama, admits to little more than being born (1917). ... This article is about the street in New York City. ... Gary Sinise (born March 17, 1955, in Blue Island, Illinois) is an Emmy winning American actor and film director. ...

Plot

[Spoiler warnining: Profound plot details follow]

Prisoner Randle Patrick McMurphy declares himself insane so he'll be transferred to a mental institution, which he believes will be more comfortable than the jailhouse. McMurphy soon finds that his ward in the mental institution is run with an iron fist by the domineering Nurse Ratched. McMurphy quickly flexes his individualist muscle in the ward, making a name for himself and causing trouble for the staff. During his stay he attempts to breathe life, masculinity, and individuality back into the submissive and emasculated patients, such as Chief, a tall, deaf-mute Native American. Near the end of the play, McMurphy attacks Nurse Ratched after her tyrannical rule drives one of the patients to suicide. McMurphy undergoes a lobotomy, and when his vegetative body is brought back to the ward, Chief smothers him to end his pain, then escapes the hospital. Randle Patrick McMurphy, or R P McMurphy for short, is an Irish-American mental patient from Ken Keseys novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. ... Suicide (from Latin sui caedere, to kill oneself) is the act of willfully ending ones own life. ... Psychosurgery is the practice of performing surgery on the brain to treat or alleviate severe mental disease. ...

Trivia

In the 1971 production, Danny Devito filled the role of Martini, only to return to play Martini again in the film four years later. Danny DeVito as Louie in Taxi. ... One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is a 1975 film directed by Miloš Forman. ...