Giles Terera soars in 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' at The Old Vic

Olivier winner Giles Terera is starring alongside Aaron Pierre in a bold new production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.

Summary

• Giles Terera is starring in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest at The Old Vic alongside Aaron Pierre and Olivia Williams
• Terera's other credits include Hamilton; Oh Mary! and Dr Strangelove
• Terera won an Olivier Award for his performance as Aaron Burr in Hamilton in 2018 and he was nominated this year for Oh Mary!

The 1975 film One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, which won five Academy Awards, including for its star Jack Nicholson, is such an intrinsic part of cinema history that it’s difficult for Giles Terera to remember when he first saw it. But he does clearly remember when he first encountered Dale Wasserman’s theatre adaptation of Ken Kesey’s countercultural novel – which premiered on Broadway in 1963, a year after the book was published, and was last produced in the West End 20 years ago. As soon as director Clint Dyer asked Terera to read the playscript, he knew he had to do it. “I was immediately transfixed by the characters,” he says.

The movie focuses on Nicholson’s McMurphy, a rebellious new arrival at the psychiatric institution run by the formidable Nurse Ratched, which means we see less of characters like Dale Harding, who Terera plays. “But the theatre version, like the novel, is a fantastic ensemble piece. We get to know about all these different patients, who are so beautifully written and have really rich lives and pasts.”

Terera was fascinated to learn more about Kesey’s real-life experiences. “He worked as an orderly at a mental health facility, and he witnessed and even took part in some of the experimental drug programmes – like taking LSD as part of Project MKUltra. But he said that after being with these patients for a while, he came to the conclusion that there was nothing wrong with them. It was society that was really responsible for a lot of the difficulties they faced. That question of the role society plays is still really pertinent, especially as we’re talking much more about treating mental health.”

It’s a key factor for Dale, says Terera. “He’s wrestling with his sexuality and the concept of masculinity, and the pressure of both his own personal expectations and social expectations. It’s such a compelling depiction. I don’t think I’ve ever seen this kind of character portrayed in this way.”

Dyer has chosen a majority Black cast, with Black actors playing the patients – a creative choice that resonated deeply with Terera. “I thought it was a brilliant idea. The fact is that in the UK people of colour are three times more likely to be institutionalised or sectioned. Here as well as in the US, there is a vast disparity in how people of colour are treated by society. It’s a great opportunity for us to have that conversation.”

Terera observes that Dyer’s vision honours Kesey’s original novel, in which the story is told from the perspective of a disenfranchised Native American character, Chief Bromden. “They made the choice not to do that in the film. But Chief Bromden is central to the play, as is the exploration of colonialism. Making the patients African-American also speaks to Kesey’s context, writing at the height of the Civil Rights Movement.”

Although the play is teeming with such thought-provoking ideas, Terera says it is also a gripping and shockingly funny piece – one that plunges the audience into the action. “We’re doing it in the round, which means the front row is right there in that ward with us. It feels claustrophobic and intimate: we’re trapped together. You understand what it’s like for the patients, being watched all the time.” Terera teases that there is also a musical element, created by the company.

That company features a late arrival: Olivia Williams, replacing Michelle Gomez (who had to step down for personal reasons) as Nurse Ratched. Terera is in awe of Williams’s command of the role, saying: “You need a fearless actor to jump in and gain such a quick understanding of who this woman is.” Terera is also excited by Aaron Pierre, as McMurphy, who “brings a quality of humanness but also this edge of ‘anything can happen’.”

One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest is a stark contrast to Terera’s previous project, West End comic romp Oh, Mary!, in which he played Mary’s Husband. “I love doing things that challenge me in a different way,” Terera explains. “Although strangely there are some connections between them: they both concern mental health, social pressure, sexuality, being told you’re not good enough, or don’t fit in. Both stories demonstrate that if you’re not living your authentic self, bad things can happen, and that we all deserve happiness.”

Nevertheless, the two productions are illustrative of Terera’s remarkable range. His teeming CV includes everything from playing Hamlet at Chichester Festival Theatre to the theatre version of legendary political satire Dr. Strangelove. Although he was always a prolific actor, his career skyrocketed after he won an Olivier for playing Aaron Burr in the original West End cast of Hamilton. “People looked at me differently – they were much more willing to have conversations,” recalls Terera. “I definitely benefited from what Hamilton as a whole did through its casting: the way the industry looked at how stories are being told, and how audiences will accept who tells those stories.” Up next, Terera is reuniting with Lynette Linton (who directed him in Clyde’s and Blues for an Alabama Sky) for two projects: a play and a musical.

He is grateful to other performers who have inspired him, including “the incredible” Clive Rowe, and his castmate Jason Pennycooke, who Terera first encountered when he joined RENT in 2002. “Jason was in the company, they’d been on the road for a year, and he blew me away with his work ethic and dedication – he gave 100% of himself every single night.” The pair reunited in Hamilton, and are now back together in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. “It’s really special to get to work with him again,” says Terera. “And in this truly great piece of theatre full of multi-layered characters. Whether you’ve seen the movie or not, it should be an unforgettable experience.”

Book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest tickets on LondonTheatre.co.uk

This article first appeared in the May 2026 issue of London Theatre Magazine.

Photo credit: Giles Terera in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. (Photo by Manuel Harlan.). Inset: in Hamilton and Oh, Mary! (Courtesy of productions)