Based on 20th-century American author Ken Kesey’s best-known novel by the same name, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest turned out to be LGS JT’s most arresting theatrical work in recent years. Staged at the school campus in Johar Town and helmed by the ever dependable Omair Rana, under his banner Real Entertainment Productions, the play was an instant success.

For the uninitiated, the novel presents certain issues that were being debated aggressively in the United States of the 1960s, most evidently the way in which patients with psychological illnesses were looked upon at the time. It was adapted for Broadway in 1963 and has been revived twice since. The film version came almost a decade after the book’s release in ‘62 but is considered to be more popular.

For us, perhaps, the most surprising fact is that Lahore Grammar School-Johar Town’s A’ Level students chose it to be the school’s annual production, given the fact that the novel has had a troublesome history with high schools in particular. This history mostly involves the book being banned in various schools across the US due to its explicit content. LGS JT’s team toned it down considerably but taking on a subject this mature itself is commendable.

The play is set in the ward of a mental institution which is controlled by the insidious nurse Ratched. The patients within the ward are controlled by the manipulative nurse who preys on their insecurities to keep them in control. McMurphy’s arrival to the ward, to serve out the rest of his sentence for statutory rape, is a chance for all patients to rally against the nurse and finally break free.

It provides a different perspective to the way the psychologically ill patients are treated not only by those around them but also by the very system that is built to cure them. This debate, even today, seems relevant.

The play begins by introducing the orderly world that the patients are living in. Curtains open to a plain white set, the doors neatly labelled, the nurses’ station slightly raised at one corner and on the other an area cordoned off by a metal mesh. Life is lived on the rhythm of the bells and the buzzers controlled by the orderlies and nurse Ratched and a patient is brought in carefully and crucified in the small area lit by red lights.

Immune to all this, the patients quietly play a game of cards as in jumps in McMurphy (played by Saim Khan) from the door titled hallways. His defiance of the system is clear from the minute he walks in -- the dull blue shirt and faded denim jeans standing out amidst the white worn by the rest of the actors on stage.

McMurphy’s loudness breaks the monotony of the otherwise dull ward.

Another embodiment of this defiance -- one that remained consistent throughout the performance -- was Khan’s resolute will to deliver most of his dialogues with his back towards the audience, something which one is heavily advised against in theatre.

Despite being annoying at a few places, this seemed to blend in well with the overall theme of the play. Khan’s energy throughout the play was true to McMurphy’s character.

What made the play more interesting to watch was the way in which all the other actors on stage remained in character even when they weren’t the centre of attention. Be it Talha Mansoor, as Billy, slowly banging his head into a wall or talking to himself. Their actions had just the right amount of energy which didn’t unnecessarily take the attention away from the action of the scene; it only added to making the audience believe in the asylum created on stage.

While Ratched was originally a female character, its portrayal by Abdur Rehman as the studious, wiry looking man obsessed with control and power fit in well with the theme of the play. It also helped to create some sympathy for the character. One could almost see him being bullied as a child leading up to the control-freak adult we saw in the play.

The two characters which did remain ‘female’ were those of the prostitutes snuck in for a party by the patients. And, what a great job was done by Shaheer Ahmed as Candy and Shoaib Naveed as Sandy. Albeit a bit exaggerated, the two were splendid from the leg that went up in the air whenever Sandy would hug someone to the way Candy flirted with Billy.

The Chief’s character is supposed to be one of the most intriguing in the play. Its mystery was maintained by the director as actor Ali Ahad appeared in the after hours when all the other patients would be sleeping and the lights were dim. Silent during daytime, this is when he would talk to the audience.

Apart from McMurphy, Chief is the only patient aware of the asylum’s warped attempts to cure them. In the very beginning, he tells the audience how they are sent to "factories like this for fixing up mistakes they made outside."

His informed insight into the way the asylum functions is also seen later when he tells McMurphy he is the only one with power amongst the patients, pointing to the fact that while McMurphy has been trying to set the patients free from Ratched’s tyrannical rule, he might also be using them for his own purpose.

Year after year, LGS JT opts for different subjects and themes for their annual theatre play. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest was no different. The two-and-half-hour long production was not tiring to watch after all, despite the uncomfortable seating arrangement. The actors and the director built the play by creating an emotional affiliation with the characters. The energetic audience, largely comprising teenagers, was clearly hooting for the patients -- that is, when it wasn’t hooting for friends up on stage.

And, this very audience finally sat in quiet involvement as Chief Bromden strangulated McMurphy in his vegetative state in the final scene.