Woman in Mind Revival
Closing: February 28, 2026Woman in Mind - 2025 West End History , Info & More
Duke of York's Theatre
St Martin's Ln, Charing Cross, London WC2N 4BG, United Kingdom London WC2N 4BG
The comic poet of middle class life, always so very funny, goes deeper and darker in this triumphant play about a housewife named Susan who is married to a boring cleric named George. 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. Eventually, the fantasy family becomes nightmarish and Susan begins to realize that she is going mad.
Woman in Mind - 2025 - West End Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR Woman in Mind
Sheridan Smith gives a strong turn in an outdated tragicomedy
6 / 10
It’s a brilliantly conceived idea, and often very funny. The joke about Muriel’s inedible cooking – “There was talk of a dessert and I am afraid I lost my nerve,” says Bill, explaining his sudden absence – becomes a symbol of the lumpy, unedifying nature of the life in which Susan is trapped, where she no longer loves her husband and the best he can manage in return is “I’m still reasonably fond of you.” Ayckbourn’s writing straddles the line between light laughter and domestic trauma with considerable finesse, but the second act darkens as Susan’s desperation rises and even her other life no longer provides the escape she longs for.
Play stands the test of time for its originality
6 / 10
Revived in its 40th anniversary year, the play stands the test of time for its originality and boldness: this is a critique of the emptiness of married life and the desperation that a woman feels inside it that takes us from the domestic drudge to high-wire supernaturalism. When it works, it is unnerving. The imaginary family is creepy for its wooden perfection and performative warmth. You feel the chill building as they turn into nightmarish tormentors.
Category
by Aliya Al-Hassan - January 7, 2026
Directed by Michael Longhurst and starring Sheridan Smith as Susan and Romesh Ranganathan as Dr Bill, the show is now open at the Duke of York's Theatre. What did the critics think?
by Stephi Wild - January 6, 2026
All new production photos have been released of Sheridan Smith and Romesh Ranganathan in Alan Ayckbourn’s psychological comedy WOMAN IN MIND. Check out the photos below!
by Aliya Al-Hassan - January 7, 2026
Alan Ayckbourn’s 1985 play Woman In Mind is a darkly comic look about mental disintegration and a mid-life ennui that would have rarely been spoken about forty years ago. In the first major West End revival since 2012, director Michael Longhurst presents a startling portrait of a woman who retreats into a fantasy world as a means of coping with her lack of purpose and love in her real life.
by Stephi Wild - December 11, 2025
Production photos have been released of Sheridan Smith and Romesh Ranganathan in Alan Ayckbourn’s psychological comedy WOMAN IN MIND, which plays a strictly limited West End run at the Duke of York’s Theatre.
by Stephi Wild - October 8, 2025
Romesh Ranganathan will make his West End stage debut in a new production of Alan Ayckbourn's psychological comedy WOMAN IN MIND in a strictly limited West End run. Learn more here!
by Stephi Wild - September 18, 2025
A new production of Alan Ayckbourn's psychological comedy WOMAN IN MIND will star Sheridan Smith in a strictly limited West End run at the Duke of York's Theatre.
Woman in Mind History
Other Productions of Woman in Mind
| 1988 | Off-Broadway |
Off-Broadway |
| 2025 | West End |
West End |
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