Review: Woman in Mind
@ the Duke of York's Theatre until February 28th 2026
Director: Michael Longhurst
Writer: Alan Ayckbourn
Cast: Sheridan Smith, Romesh Ranganathan, Tim McMullan, Louise Brealey & Safia Oakley-Green
Ayckbourn is so prolific a playwright that it’s quite challenging to have anything resembling an original idea without later discovering that he’s already done it multiple times over. Indeed, so comprehensive is his back catalogue that all of the reference points and examples in The Crafty Art of Playmaking, his 2002 guide to writing and directing for the stage, are from his own work. Whilst possibly a sign of an ego in serious need of tempering, it’s also an indication of just how much the man has written and how influential so much of his work has been on contemporary British drama. First staged in 1985, before transferring to the West End in 1986 with Julia McKenzie in the principal role of Susan, Woman in Mind, his 32nd play out of, at time of writing, 91 (!) now returns to the West End with the ever booked and busy Sheridan Smith in the role McKenzie made famous.
The title - Woman in Mind - evokes an intangible, almost romantic milieu that Ayckbourn upends with what is ultimately a story of desperate madness and longing. Set entirely in the garden of a house, which may or may not exist solely in housewife Susan’s head, it is a postmodern, surrealist drama about a woman trapped beneath the cosh of suffocating, unfulfilling domesticity. Straddling two existences - one real and one imagined - Susan flits between her tedious real life, with her boring husband, his shrill sister and a son who doesn’t love her, and her fantasies, with an elegant, wealthy and attractive family. As these two worlds begin to merge and Susan’s grip on her own sense of self begins to collapse, however, it becomes clear that what bedevils her is a desperate desire to escape the confines of the social roles into which she has become locked in both existences, and that neither world wants to set her free.
There are lots of philosophical and psychological threads to untangle here, and Ayckbourn’s dialogue is sometimes imbalanced, with too much focus on humour at the expense of drama. Longhurst’s direction, likewise, is effective at capturing how nightmarish the two “realities” are, particularly in the second act, which boasts some genuinely menacing sequences, though the production feels archaic in its approach to how the play portrays female hysteria and psychosis. A little like its protagonist, the production feels like it is being pulled in different directions and isn’t quite sure what to do with itself or what to grapple with.
Smith’s performance is excellent, however, and she manages to balance the play’s bathetic elements with real skill, thus elevating material that Ayckbourn has a tendency to overwrite. She’s a compelling mix of ditzy and desperate, and she exhibits real sympathy for Susan throughout. Alongside Tim McMullan, who is also great as her banal husband Gerald, she breathes a tragic energy into the production that makes those final moments, when cruel realisation sets in, all the more impactful. The rest of the ensemble are strong too, though I’m not convinced Ranganathan is quite made for this sort of stage work.
For its faults and missteps, Woman in Mind is an enjoyable and thought-provoking play, and one that would have been quite radical forty years ago. This production is also perfectly fine, and sometimes really quite good, but sometimes feels like it’s merely going through the motions of examining ideas that, at their core, are quite chilling.
Score: ⭐⭐⭐