Woman in Mind Tickets

The Vaudeville Theatre is the home to Woman In Mind as the Alan Ayckbourn comedy returns to a London stage. This dark comedy is a stand out Ayckbourn play not only for its success but also because it is so different to so many of his other plays. This first person look at a woman who is going through a break down has been linked to many things over Ayckbourn’s life, including the break down of his own mother, but he insists it was mostly inspired by the work of others such as The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat and the movie Dead On Arrival.

Woman In Mind opens with the character of Susan waking from a head injury received from a garden rake. She is being helped by the doctor Bill Windsor and before long her family arrive. She lives in a large house with grand open grounds. The problem is – this is all fantasy. Susan is in fact the unsatisfied wife of a clergyman, a man who is both boring and inconsiderate. This mundane life is driving her mad and it is no wonder she lives a separate life in her own head. Eventually all of this reaches a dramatic climax as the fantasy and real world collide and end with Susan as a broken woman.

Actress Janie Dee plays Susan in this production after having worked with Ayckbourn before in 1999’s Comic Potential at the Lyric Theatre. For this role she won many awards including the Critics Circle Award, an Evening Standard Award and wins at the Laurence Olivier Awards. Her other credits include the 2008 production of Twelfth Night at the Open Air Theatre, Shadowlands at the Wyndham’s and Novello in 2007 and the 2006 productions of Donkey Years at the Comedy and Mack & Mabel at the Criterion.

Woman In Mind first appeared in 1985, with Alan Ayckbourn directing a production at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough. This starred Ursula Jones in the lead role with support from Barry McCarthy, Caroline Webster and Russell Dixon. It then transferred to London where it appeared at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1986. It received great critical reviews upon its London premiere and has since been celebrated as a great Ayckbourn production.

Alan Ayckbourn is a well known playwright, but his routes are at the Library Theatre in Scarborough where he was hired as an actor and stage manager in 1957 and 1959. Since then he has gone on to have great success as the writer of productions such as The Norman Conquests, a series of plays that encompass Table Manners, Round And Round The Garden and Living Together.

Woman In Mind is at the Vaudeville Theatre from Friday 6th February 2009 (previews from Thursday 29th January 2009), currently booking until Sunday 31st May 2009.