This year, the Torch Theatre, Milford Haven celebrates its 25th anniversary and there can be fewer better ways of kick-starting their Silver Jubilee Autumn season than with their searingly good production of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

Adapted by Dale Wasserman from Ken Kesey's novel and immortalised in the multiple Oscar winning 1975 film staring Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest is a grim yet darkly witty satire of institutionalised authority set in a late 1950s mental hospital.

Extremely adult fare, the Torch production is a jarring and electrifying drama consummately acted by a superb ensemble cast and deftly directed by the Torch's resident artistic director, Peter Doran.

The stark, lifeless day-room of the mental institution becomes the microcosmic centre of a struggle between freedom of expression and discipline as loose cannon R. P. McMurphy and quietly sadistic chief nurse, Nurse Ratchid, vie for supremacy, with McMurphy challenging authority and conformity at every turn.

Told through the eyes of deaf mute Chief Bromden (an imposing Tim Perrin), we see effervescent con-man McMurphy trying to escape the rigours of life on a southern USA prison work detail by pretending he's crazy. Sent to the mental institution for evaluation, he finds a group of men emasculated and broken by their daily hospital regime.

Realising that the 'inmates' are really no crazier than the man on the street, he sets about trying to get them to assert themselves by challenging the austere regime at every turn.

However, this brings him into conflict with the strong-willed Ratchid, who always seems able to quash his attempts at rebellion, ultimately leading to a brutally shocking, yet triumphal denouement as McMurphy pays the ultimate price for smuggling two 'women of easy virtue' onto the ward for a drink and sex fuelled Christmas party.

With languid 'Mississippi Delta' music setting the scene, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest does have a rather slow burn opening, but fizzes into life as the tension between the wise-cracking misfit McMurphy and the hard-nosed Ratchid mounts, gripping the audience and taking it on an emotional rollercoaster ride as it makes you laugh, cry and seethe with anger in equal measure.

Rather nervous laughter gives way to true mirth under Doran's light touch and the excellent performances, particularly from Richard Nichols as McMurphy and Kyra Williams as Ratchid.

It's no mean feat trying to follow Nicholson's Oscar-scooping turn, but Nichols turns in a bravura performance, eschewing any attempts to 'copycat' the film legend.

In his hands, McMurphy is the true anti-hero as he turns a mentally unstable rapist into a likeable rogue who you root for in his attempts to conquer the forces of injustice and repression, while Williams brings added depth to the rather more one-dimensional, rigidly unbendable, domineering Ratchid, manipulating the inmates' emotions to ensure they conform to her iron will.

But this is by no means a 'two-hander', with Nichols and Williams backed by a superb ensemble cast, who tweak at the emotions with rich, fully rounded performances.

These are by no means secondary roles, all helping to make One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest witty and harrowing in equal measure.

Keith Woodason as Harding and Michael Webber as Cheswick stand out particularly, but even those in more minor roles help make up the whole, including Michael Neary as Martini, George Waring as Scanlon and Dave Ainsworth as Ruckly.

Able support is also provided by Paul Maddaford and Andrew Earl as the brutal and unfeeling wardens, Lisa Zahar as Nurse Flynn and Laura Cairns as Candy Starr, but of particular note was Gareth Pierce as the mother-fearing stutterer Billy Bibbit, who acts as the catalyst for the final, shocking confrontation between McMurphy and Ratchid.

Although he pays a terrible price, McMurphy does become the hero and changes the lives of his fellow inmates, and it is this triumph of spirit that shines through this stand-out production, particularly in its memorable closing scene.

By no means easy viewing, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, is, however, a beautifully compelling, absorbing, magnificently crafted piece of live theatre, justifying the standing ovation it received on the evening I attended.

Once again Doran and the Torch Theatre Company have showed their craft at its best. Catch it if you can.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest runs until November 2.

ANDREW DAVIES