A stage adaptation of Oregon author Ken Kesey’s famed 1962 novel “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” opens Friday at Cascades Theatre (148 NW Greenwood Ave., Bend). And despite the decades since Kesey wrote the book, the story at its heart remains relevant today, says director Desi Thrower.

Most people are familiar with the 1975 film starring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, Thrower told GO. The pair each won an Academy Award for their roles as the charismatic, rebellious R.P. McMurphy, who lights up the psychiatric hospital where the story is set, and the strict, no-nonsense Nurse Ratched, with whom he clashes.

The play originally opened on Broadway, starring Kirk Douglas, and was revived in 1971 and 2001.

Thrower touts the show as “a beautiful story that blends humor and drama throughout its important message” and one that also “literally hits close to home — the story takes place in the Oregon State Mental Hospital located in Salem, and the movie was filmed both at the Salem mental hospital and in Depoe Bay.”

“It is multi-layered in that it is the struggle between embracing individuality and being forced to conform to a society that looks, acts, and behaves in the same subservient manner. The ‘machine,’ which is the mental institution, takes the patients and molds them into obedient robots that do not question or challenge the authority. There really is no benefit of wellness for the patients; the focus is on keeping ultimate power by those in charge.”

“It seems like a devastating outcome, however, the story of ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest’ gives us a spark of hope at its ending,” Thrower said. “The play’s protagonist, R.P. McMurphy … teaches his fellow patients that they deserve to be treated with human dignity. This talented group of actors demonstrate how one person’s ideas and personal sacrifice gives a sense of hope to a group of lost souls.”

And not much has improved with how we handle mental health in a profit-driven way today, the director said.

“When the quality of mental health care is ignored and the funding for better programs disappears, what do we have left? Growing homeless camps, perhaps, mass shootings across the country or the extinction of communities caring for each other, replaced by an ‘every man for himself’ way of life at any cost.”