As one of England’s most prolific playwrights, Alan Ayckbourn’s ability to write about the every-man/woman and domestic simplicity has been widely celebrated. In “Woman in Mind”, oft believed to be one of his most personal works, we see his ability to turn domestic comedy into something both much darker and more devastating. Staged in its fortieth anniversary year, the play asks us to observe, understand and inhabit the mind of a woman who simply wants to be seen, heard and understood.
We encounter our titular woman Susan (Sheridan Smith) for the first time lying prone in front of the safety curtain, the direct aftermath of a knock on the head from a garden rake, unable to decipher the kindly, if somewhat hapless, doctor Bill (Romesh Ranganathan in a charming stage debut) who has been dispatched to examine her. As the play, and Susan herself, unravels, we see this ‘knock on the head’ as a gateway (think Alice down the rabbit hole) into a dual life — one where hallucinations of her manifested and idealised family come face to face with Susan’s troubling reality.
Romesh Ranganathan as Bill and Sheridan Smith as Susan in Woman in Mind at the Duke of York’s Theatre
There is both mirroring and opposition in these two families we see on stage — Susan’s estranged son Rick (Taylor Uttley) slant doubles as the overly attentive imagined daughter Lucy (Safia Oakley-Green) and her malaise at a sexless, performative marriage to her emotionally distant husband Gerald (Tim McMullan) plays in opposition to the amorous Andy (Sule Rimi) in her mind. We balance drab hues with gaudy styling, cold light with warm, black and white scenic projections with glitching technicolour but with an off kilter unease that successfully resists feeling contrived but crucially never allows the audience much stability; a mirror back to Susan herself.
The play itself is full of quick witted, quippy dialogue that would not be out of place in a sitcom and on the whole moves along at a steady and sustained pace. Moments of levity come throughout — from the farce of Ranganathan’s Bill (not entirely to my taste but required to avoid an entirely bleak outlook), to Gerald’s dour drawl; they take a decidedly darker turn in act two. The laughter throughout is not always from a place of comfort — yes, we as the audience know Susan to be the one whose reality is blurring, but less is said about her sister-in-law Muriel (Louise Brealey) who is haunted by her dead husband, or her son Rick who has joined a non speaking cult. For all of Susan’s challenges and flaws, she is both an entertaining and sympathetic character and an enjoyable protagonist to spend time with, or indeed within.
Chris Jenks as Tony, Sule Rimi as Andy, Sheridan Smith as Susan and Safia Oakley-Green as Lucy
Crucially, however, Susan is self aware and Smith plays this with real light and shade. There is a wry smile in her asides to the audience before each blackout, there is a frustration as the voices of her visions crowd in, a wearied acceptance as the long-suffering vicar’s wife and an initial freedom that comes from the curation and creation of her perceived perfect life.
This is not a one note portrayal of the ‘crazy woman’ (though the Patsy Cline melody that plays throughout the theatre may beg to differ) but demonstrates texture and nuance despite a lack of actualised diagnosis (something Ayckbourn famously resisted). Where we see the imaginary family have to slide under the halfway-raised safety curtain in the opening few scenes, they are an altogether more malevolent presence by the second act, with Susan unable to keep them at bay or to make sense of an increasingly confused reality.
For Smith, who has taken on some significant roles in the last few years which could all fall into the broader category of ‘women of (not so sound) mind’ this will herald a welcome return to the Duke of York’s theatre. Given how open and honest she has been about her own mental health struggles, tackling this play’s complex material with such an accomplished performance (one in which she never leaves the stage), might just be one of her most personal triumphs to date.
Woman In Mind plays at the Duke of York’s Theatre until 28th February. Following this at Sunderland Empire 4th-7th March, and Theatre Royal Glasgow 10th-14th March. For more information, and for tickets, please visit www.thedukeofyorks.com.
Photos by Marc Brenner
