About the Play:

Woman in Mind is a full-length comedy by Alan Ayckbourn. The play follows Susan who, following an accident with a garden rake, finds that she has entered a new and startling dimension. It also soon becomes apparent her loving family are not exactly what they seem. Woman in Mind is a fascinating and inventive dark comedy that is full of Alan Ayckbourn's unique mix of laughter and loss.

Woman in Mind examines what happens when Susan, the "Woman in Mind" of the title, dreams of a perfect family, and after a freak accident involving a garden rake, her dreams become a reality. Alan Ayckbourn (England's version of Neil Simon), always so very funny, goes deeper and darker in this triumphant play about a middle-aged housewife named Susan who has been married to Gerald for years and the familiar stagnation of a marriage in crisis has set in. After getting knocked out by stepping on the tooth end of a garden rake, Susan experiences hilarious hallucinations in which her oppressive and boring everyday life is replaced by a fantasy in which she is an ideal wife and mother with an ideal family. While her real family treats her with condescension and apathy, her fantasy family dresses in lovely white, always drinks champagne, lives in a stately home and tells her that she is wonderful. As Susan becomes increasingly bewildered, the two worlds start to overlap – and finally collide, leading to situations of hilarious but agonizing awkwardness.

Woman in Mind features a tour-de-force role for an actress. What prompts a world-renowned actress to appear in a production in a 99-seat theatre in Los Angeles? In the case of Helen Mirren, one of Great Britain’s foremost actresses, the answer is "In my knowledge, this is probably one of the best roles written for a woman. I would count it among the top 10 best ever. That obviously has a lot to do with it."

Woman in Mind premiered in 1985 at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round in Scarborough, and its London premiere at the Vaudeville Theatre the following year. It premiered at the Manhattan Theatre Club (MTC) in New York City in 1988. The play is regularly performed in regional, college, and community theatre productions.

Cast: 3 female, 5 male

What people say:

"Ayckbourn knows that even the bleakest situations aren't allergic to laughter, and he creates a set of believable people whose weaknesses and foibles are food for mirth. We laugh at ourselves through his characters and the experience is at once painful and exhilarating." — Sunday Express (London)

"...confirms Ayckbourn's status as a master of tragi-comedy." — The Guardian

About the Playwright:

Sir Alan Ayckbourn is one of the most widely performed living English language playwrights and a highly regarded theatre director. His works, mostly comedies, deal with middle-class manners and conflicts. He is a Tony, Olivier, and Moliere Award winning writer who has written 77 full length plays, more than half of which have gone on to London's West End. His contribution to theatre has been recognized with both a Special Tony Award and the Olivier's Special Award.