The audience walks in and the mental asylum is in full swing. An eerie mechanical ambience reverberates throughout the Old Chapel. Students of Year 11 Drama cover the stage and the story has begun.

For over a term, the class had been rehearsing for the Year 11 production, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, based on the original novel by Ken Kesey. This production was a major part of the Semester 1 assessment syllabus, and consisted of each student’s individual performance and designated production role.

In approaching this particular play, the class needed to be mindful of the social and political issues intertwined within the narrative. The horrific treatment of patients of mental institutions in the 1960s was one such theme, and the students were required to deal with the issues and portray them in a mature manner.

As part of the assessment, students had taken on a cast role as well as a production role. Each student was required to hand in a director’s concept as part of the assessment, which outlined the creative vision and style of the students. It was agreed that the class would adopt a combination of realism and expressionism, developing a naturalistic relationship between the actors and the audience.

A unique element of this production was that each student was able to choose a specific production role to carry out in addition to acting. These included roles such as Producer, Publicity, Set and Costume, as well as Lighting and Sound Designer.

As a class we would like to thank Mrs Cookson, Ms Smith, Ben Williams, and Mr Honeywill for all their help in making the production such a success.

Yr 11 Drama Students