Hollywood star Christian Slater will headline a new production of Dale Wasserman's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. He will appear in the play at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival from August 6 through August 30 before a fall West End bow at a theater to be announced. The production, directed by Guy Masterson, will also feature Mackenzie Crook as Billy Bibbit and Frances Barber as Nurse Rachet.
Early in his career, journalists often compared Slater to Jack Nicholson, who won an Oscar for his performance Randle P. McMurphy in the film version of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. Slater's film credits include The Legend of Billie Jean, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Gleaming the Cube, Heathers, Young Guns II, Pump Up the Volume, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Mobsters, Kuffs, Untamed Heart, True Romance, Interview with the Vampire, Murder in the First, Bed of Roses, Broken Arrow, Hard Rain, Very Bad Things, The Contender, 3000 Miles to Graceland, Who Is Cletis Tout? and Windtalkers. Slater has stage experience as well. He appeared on the Great White Way in The Music Man, Copperfield, Macbeth, Merlin and Side Man. His off-Broadway credits include Landscape of the Body.
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is the story of a mental hospital and its inhabitants. When brash new inmate Randle P. McMurphy arrives, the rigid program of the ward, headed by the tyrannical Nurse Ratched, is thrown up for grabs.
In addition to the actors mentioned above, this production will feature Stephen K. Amos, David Calvitto, Ian Coppinger, Felix Dexter, Adrian Hope, Katherine Jakeways, Dave Johns, Phil Nichol; Owen O'Neill, Lucy Porter, Gavin Robertson and Lizzie Roper.