The patients of of the Lilac ward, the psychiatric facility of Saint Jude’s hospital, don’t fly over the cuckoo’s nest, they nest there.

And in the Matthew Rankcom and Joe Wilson musical, PERFECTLY ORDINARY, they sing about their psychosis, make music of their mental illness.

Thankfully, the cast sing like nightingales rather than cuckoos, and the music and lyrics lift the otherwise bland and sombre book with a series of hope songs.

There’s no Nurse Ratchett here, but a mental health nurse called Pinky, (Josephine Emmett) nomenclatured perhaps for her pink uniform, a den mother of the ward, her wards physical and emotional needs taking their toll on her own and her family’s emotional health.

The patients are a rag tag group of nutters and crazies.

Eileen,(Kathryn Peterson) an older woman suffering dementia, wandering the house and wondering where her spouse is. The dementia has erased his death and she is left with a feeling of abandonment.

A mysterious girl (Jessica King) – not so much dealing with demons as with dragons – takes up with new inductee, James,( Finn Gough) a writer who hallucinates hell fire.

There’s George,(Joseph P. Issa) a big bear divorcee with bipolar,  and Suzie, (Jessica Curtis) a post natally depressed woman focusing her maternal instincts on Noah, (Matthew Geddes) a paranoid schizophrenic.

More confident in their musical presentation than the straight acting interludes between songs, this ensemble from Central Coast crowd, Create +Co Theatre, are forging their craft during the Sydney Fringe Festival at Fringe HQ, Bayswater Road, Kings Cross, They have one more performance on Sunday 15th September at 6.30pm.

This production will be raising funds for Everymind. For more information visit https://everymind.org.au/

Duration:120 minutes
Presenter:Create + Co Theatre
Origin:NSW
Rating: PG
Website: www.createtheatre.com.au