Woman in Mind

Ayckbourn’s dark comedy about madness and dysfunctional families is a sheer, if slightly dated, delight, says Rebecca Schischa

Prolific English playwright Alan Ayckbourn returns to triumphant form to direct a revival of his comedy Woman in Mind at the Vaudeville Theatre, first premiered in London over twenty years ago on the very same stage.

From the atmospheric opening scene in which we see the protagonist Susan lying concussed on a lush green lawn after receiving a knock to the head, Ayckbourn adopts a first-person narrative to great effect allowing the audience to see directly into the increasingly disturbing mind of his heroine.

Award-winning actress Janie Dee sparkles as the frustrated Susan, who, with the help of an unhealthy dose of wish-fulfilment and an over-active imagination, succeeds in conjuring up a perfect imaginary family to counter her dreary, unfulfilling real-life family made up of tedious vicar-husband Gerald, priggish sister-in-law Muriel, and estranged, socially-inept son Rick.

As the play unravels, Ayckbourn creates great farcical moments of confusion, as the characters making up Susan’s real and imaginary families cross paths in the picturesque garden. Only we, the audience, alongside Susan, can actually see her made-up family, while her real family look on her with increasing bafflement.

The lynchpin of the play is bumbling, clumsy anti-hero, Dr Bill Windsor, brilliantly played by Paul Kemp, who we meet in the opening scene. Here, Ayckbourn’s use of the first-hand narrative is played out to great comic effect as the doctor appears to be talking gibberish to Susan - but only, we soon work out, because we are seeing everything as Susan’s mind perceives it.  Bill provides Susan with a reassuringly ‘sane’ presence throughout the play as she gradually descends into madness and experiences the horror of her real and imaginary worlds merging into a nightmarish new reality. 

One of the charms of this mildly old-fashioned comedy is the way Susan comes to shatter middle-England values – a world in which polite, middle-class people converse inanely on their lush green lawns, all the while as they bury their loveless marriages under the carpet. Janie Dee’s Susan is sexual, alive and witty throughout – all the more an achievement given that she maintains a continuous stage presence throughout the entire performance. 

Perhaps my main critique of Ayckbourn’s play is its over-reliance on stereotypes: Susan’s imaginary husband Andy is just that bit too tall, dashing and handsome while Gerald is just that bit too cardigan-wearing, sanctimonious and nerdy. Similarly, her imaginary daughter Lucy is as blond, simpering and pretty as Muriel is dumpy, bitter and dour.

But overall, the richness and complexity of Susan’s character, coupled with Ayckbourn’s witty repartee, carries the play abundantly through to its darkly surreal denouement.

Woman in Mind, booking until 31 May 2009
Vaudeville Theatre, Strand
www.vaudevilletheatre.co.uk
Box office: 0844 412 4663