Alan Ayckbourn’s comedy Woman In Mind, said to be one of his most powerful plays, is to be revived at Birmingham REP.
Woman in Mind was written in 1985 and is recognised as being radically different from Ayckbourn’s earlier plays.
It tells the story of a woman caught between two worlds. One afternoon, Susan finds herself lying on the lawn of her suburban garden, concussed by a garden rake and with the family doctor tending to her. Soon, her adoring, handsome husband and the rest of the family arrive home to spoil her.
But when her real husband—a vicar whose main love is writing a 60-page history of the parish—appears, the audience realises that Susan has created an entire fantasy family as an antidote to the real one.
As she becomes increasingly bewildered, the two worlds start to overlap and finally collide, leading to “situations of hilarious but agonising awkwardness”.
Marilyn Imrie directs. She says, “I love Ayckbourn’s unerring ability, demonstrated perfectly in Woman In Mind, to tell a story that draws us in completely to the central character’s predicament, and then asks us, with gentle mocking humour and sometimes broad farce, to consider their darkest sorrows as well as their joys.
“Woman In Mind has one of the best parts I’ve come across for a woman and that’s what’s always particularly drawn me to it as a director.
“It has the haunting mystery of Barrie’s Mary Rose, the teasing elegance of Coward’s Blithe Spirit and it casts an appraising comedic eye on how religious faith may sometimes blind us to the needs of those close to us, reminding us that many families, and the women central to them, live lives of quiet desperation.”
Meg Fraser plays Susan and will be joined by Andrew Wincott, Scott Hoaston, Richard Conlon, Neil McKinven, Irene MacDougall, Ncuti Gatwa and Laura Dale.
Designer is Ti Green, with lighting design by Mark Doubleday.
Co-produced with Dundee Rep Ensemble, Woman In Mind runs at Birmingham REP from Friday (13 June) until Saturday 28 June.