Paul Taylor-Mills whom I’d worked previously with on Honk! approached me to supply some more theatre projection for his production of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. Although I had already done a production at the Brideswell Theatre previously I was keen to work with Paul again so set about creating a new approach for this version. The play contains several dream sequence monologues for the chief, which I was to provide animated visuals for.
Re-reading the book I decided to go for a shadow puppet aesthetic which links to Kesey’s original imagery and allowed us to play a game with the blind on the nurses’ station, especially by incorporating the window panes into the shadows. The critical response was genuinely overwhelming.
This show is full of intelligent touches, including Tom Munday’s projection used to great effect when Dwayne Washington’s Chief Bromden tells his story. The London Magazine
Tom Munday’s animations are ingenious, beautiful and alternately delightful and unsettling. They operate as chapters, providing an alternative world to the grinding realism of the main action. Chief Bromden, the mute Native American, is given a voice in these sections as narrator and philosopher. He speaks beautifully and the overall effect is expertly augmented by the fantastical images of birds flying, the sun, moon and stars locked in a never-ending rotation. One Stop Arts
The highlight of the show is the use of animation. Designed by Tom Munday, these serene, simplistic images are projected onto a screen on the set and add a depth and delicacy to Chief’s memories. They add a mark of originality on production, which differentiates itself from the film or novel. Paul Taylor-Mills’s direction shows his ability to fully exploit the space and maximise the talent of the actors. Broadyway Baby
David Shields’ set is a grimly functional rendering of mental hospital recreation room, the subtle and pretty addition of origami birds clustered around the upper window a neat touch. Special mention to the beautiful projections, designed by Tom Munday, which punctuate the action and bridge the scene changes alongside soliloquies from the ward’s longest serving inmate. Gay Times
Effective too is Dwayne Washington, who as native American Chief Bromden delivers a series of monologues that pepper the play. While his dialogue all too often has to compete with some overloud music, they are accompanied by frankly beautiful shadow puppetry visuals by Tom Munday which are the visual highlight of the evening. Scott Matthewman
Tom Munday’s projections on the nurses’ blind are a beautiful visual narration alongside the monologue of the characters and capture our imagination with rustic shadow puppetry, before we are rudely awakened from our dream-like state by the institution’s harsh, clinical strip lights. A Younger Theatre