Woman in Mind ★★★★★ Duke of York's Theatre | Until February 28, 2026


Alan Ayckbourn’s 1985 dark comedy Woman in Mind dissects the illusions we cling to in order to make life bearable. Trapped in a sexless, emotionally barren marriage, Susan retreats into fantasy, inventing an ideal family in which she is cherished and admired. Around her, others nurse their own comforting fictions: her husband, a vicar, takes refuge in Christian certainty; her sister-in-law embraces spiritualism; her son disappears into a cult; and her doctor cultivates a wilful obtuseness that allows him to ignore his wife’s blatant affair. Each illusion functions as a psychological prop, easing acceptance of relationships and realities that fall short of fulfilment. Ayckbourn’s question is a chilling one: what happens when illusion hardens into delusion, and fantasy supplants the ability to live in the real world? The play lays bare the cost of surrendering to make-believe when escape becomes entrapment. Michael Longhurst’s revival captures the bleak humour of Ayckbourn’s vision with bracing clarity, and Sheridan Smith is outstanding as the beleaguered Susan. She shifts effortlessly between the acerbic commentary on her daily life and the intoxicating warmth of her imagined world. The performance is both funny and deeply unsettling. Tim McMullan is equally assured as her pompous, patriarchal husband, and his immaculate comic timing sharpens the character’s cruelty. As Dr Bill, Romesh Ranganathan impressively balances buffoonery, awkward flirtation, and baffled rationalism. It is a performance that reveals unexpected depth and control. The production’s one misstep is its use of Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” as a recurring musical motif. The choice flattens the play’s emotional complexity, reducing its psychological nuance to an overfamiliar shorthand. This is a shame, given that Woman in Mind can be read as a restrained, British counterpart to Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, exploring similar terrain with greater ambiguity and restraint. Minor quibbles aside, this revival delivers a darkly comic and disquieting examination of how disillusion with reality can drive people to replace truth with fantasy. Woman in Mind is Ayckbourn at his most incisive, and this production does full justice to his poignant, provocative play.

Rated: ★★★★★

Reviewed by J.C.
Photo by Marc Brenner

When, Where, Getting there:
Map & Location: St Martin's Ln, London WC2N 4BG, UK

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