Despite the calibre of casts and creatives his work attracts, and the admiration of writers I love including Steves Pemberton and Vineberg, I've yet to see an Alan Ayckbourn production I've even half-liked. (Alain Resnais' magical film of Private Fears in Public Places [2006] is a special case.) Vineberg, who calls Ayckbourn "the wizard of British farce," even went so far as to praise the rotten would-be ghost story Haunting Julia (1994) that was doing the rounds again in 2011; the critic claims that Ayckbourn's "brand of banter ... spins, often hilariously, off the banality of middle-class English conversation."
Banal, yes; hilarious, no. What I've seen of Ayckbourn seems obvious and shallow, and sometimes reliant on staging gimmicks. I'd take any random five minutes of an episode of One Foot in the Grave for more comedy and insight into suburban angst.
Still, the combination of a director I generally like and an actress I almost always do was enough to get me to a preview of Woman in Mind. Michael Longhurst's Sheridan Smith-starring staging arrives in the West End (prior to a short tour) to mark the 40th anniversary of Ayckbourn's play, which premiered at the Stephen Joseph in 1985. Subsequent US productions have featured Stockard Channing and Helen Mirren in the lead role of Susan; Julie McKenzie and Janie Dee have previously done it in London, and, most recently, Jenna Russell at Chichester.
It's not hard to see the draw of the role. Woman in Mind (the playwright's 32nd offering; he's now up to his 92nd) offers an externalised vision of a psychological state. Susan is a vicar's wife unhappy (natch) with her now sexless marriage, and semi-estranged from her much-loved son. She's taken refuge in fantasy - conjuring a more glamorous, appreciative brood with whom she interacts. Essentially the play dramatises maladaptive daydreaming, and we meet Susan as her parallel "existences" start to collide in more obtrusive ways. Yet Ayckbourn is less interested in making a case study than in depicting a kind of existential crisis of a neglected woman losing her sense of identity and usefulness, and sensing time running out.
For its first half, it looks like Longhurst's production will really make the play work. Soutra Gilmore's floral-heavy design - including a safety curtain with the words "Safety Curtain" still blazoned across it - and Lee Curran's lighting design give the proceedings a pop-up vividness over a particular sense of time or place. That the evening won't be the subtlest is signalled by the (fun but questionable) playlist of pre-performance and interval songs, which features just about every track ever recorded with "crazy" in its title.
As Susan's interactions with the bumbling, eager-to-please Dr. Bill (a surprisingly effective Romesh Ranganathan), with her distracted spouse Gerald (Tim McMullan, good value as always), and her terminally dull sister-in-law Muriel (Louise Brealey) converge with her chats with her more exciting and attentive fantasy family - stylish spouse Andy (Sule Rimi), ebullient daughter Lucy (Safia Oakley-Green) and dynamic brother Tony (Chris Jenks) - the tone is quite fresh and funny. (There was also a memorable meta-incident at the performance I attended, in which Smith momentarily broke character and got the giggles at the sound of a sole strangulated laugh from an audience member). Longhurst keeps the transitions between real and imagined life fleet and unfussy - when the safety curtain rises, it's to reveal the wild grasses of Susan's consciousness, from which her fantasy family start to emerge.
From there it seems like the play will get in to deeper areas, especially with the arrival of Susan's son Rick (Taylor Uttley), but the second half degenerates and ultimately the play goes nowhere interesting. What makes the production worth seeing is Smith's commitment; she has such openness and humanity as a performer that she makes even the weakest moments count. She finds all kinds of variety in Susan: vulnerability, insecurity, warmth, cutting wit and cruelty (the relish in her takedowns of Muriel is priceless), confident sultriness.
The show marks Smith's return to the West End after the unloved Opening Night musical and, while some might want to present it as such, Woman in Mind is no comparable disaster. Unlike van Hove, Longhurst isn't a director who leaves common sense behind (in fact, a wilder approach might have helped here in the later stages, in which an attempt at frenetic surrealism mostly comes across as feeble). Woman in Mind finally squanders its interesting ideas but, for all its shortcomings, it's still the most enjoyable experience I've had at an Ayckbourn play so far.
Woman in Mind is booking at the Duke of York's until 28 February and then tours to Sunderland and Glasgow. Further information here.
Production photos: Marc Brenner.
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