Woman in Mind

Synopsis

Susan has to cope with an appallingly boring husband, an interfering sister-in-law who specialises in burnt omelettes, and a son who ran away to join a non-speaking cult in Hemel Hempstead. Unfulfilled and largely ignored, she conjures up the ideal family - a dashing husband, a heroic brother and a simply super daughter, a dream team who love and cherish her, admire her talents and play tennis a lot! But problems begin when the dream family acquire a mind of their own, throwing Susan into an alarming fantasy which begins to spiral out of control.

Our Review:

9 February 2009

What you want to hear and what you have to live with – not the same things at all - is the subject of Alan Ayckbourn’s remarkable 1985 play in which his heroine, Susan, inhabits a fantasy life on her own garden lawn while the reality of her dull marriage to a vicar impinges like a nightmare.

Janie Dee, eyes twinkling, dress provocatively slit to the thigh, hair piled high, gives a beautiful performance on the very same stage where Julia McKenzie played the role in a far more elaborate production. Both artists, primarily musical theatre comediennes, extended their range as Susan; Dee – who started with this revival last summer in Scarborough - especially conveys sexual frustration as she sinks into mental crisis.

Literally out on the lawn she speaks (and hears) gobbledegook after banging her head on a garden implement. Lost to husband Gerald (Stuart Fox) and, referring to their non-existent intimate life, she says sh...

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Latest User Review

David Baxter - 2 May 2009:

It's quite brave to bring another Ayckbourn play into the West End so soon after the memorable Norman Conquests, but Woman in Mind is much darker fare. Ayckbourn himself directs and it is tempting to wonder if his stroke influenced the portrayal of Susan's plight at the beginning and end of the play. Janie Dee is excelent as a woman either living a dangerous fantasy life or actually the victim of a severe mental illness. Despite the subject matter there is still a great deal of trademark Ayckbourn humour, the best of it provided by Paul Kemp as a bumbling and besotted GP....

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