Woman in Mind West End Tickets, News, 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 - West End Cast
FEATURED REVIEWS FOR Woman in Mind
Sheridan Smith's wit can't quite elevate this frivolous fare
6 / 10
Still, it feels that Ayckbourn is ultimately more interested in the creative possibilities of madness than in probing too deeply into its underlying causes. Susan eventually dreams up a whole wedding (which is assumed to be the summit of female happiness in this play) that descends into a nightmarish horse race, in a finale that canters away from exploring her inner world, rather than towards it.
Sheridan Smith is wonderful and Romesh Ranganathan decent, but Alan Ayckbourn’s 1985 play is more artifice than heart
6 / 10
I think my biggest problem is that with her amusingly preposterous sister in law Muriel (Louise Brealey) and son Rick (Taylor Uttley) freshly escaped from a cult, Susan’s ‘real’ life is so overegged that it’s scarcely any less ludicrous than her imagined one. And while that may possibly be the idea (although I don’t think it actually is the idea) it’s difficult to see what the play is really saying about her. She’s a middle-aged woman who has been left behind by the real world and has instead embraced one conjured by her subconscious. But it never really takes the time to slow down and properly explore loneliness, middle aged sexuality, or even mental health. There is something melancholic and Chekhovian at its core, but it’s deep, deep beneath the surface, obscured by an all consuming conceptual glamour.
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Review Roundup: WOMAN IN MIND Opens at the Duke of York's Theatre
by Aliya Al-Hassan - January 7, 2026
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?
Photos: Sheridan Smith and Romesh Ranganathan in WOMAN IN MIND at the Duke of York’s Theatre
by Stephi Wild - January 6, 2026
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!
Review: WOMAN IN MIND, Starring Sheridan Smith
by Aliya Al-Hassan - January 7, 2026
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.
Photos: Sheridan Smith and Romesh Ranganathan in WOMAN IN MIND
by Stephi Wild - December 11, 2025
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.
Romesh Ranganathan and More Join Cast of WOMAN IN MIND at The Duke of York's Theatre
by Stephi Wild - October 8, 2025
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!
Sheridan Smith Will Lead Alan Ayckbourn's WOMAN IN MIND
by Stephi Wild - September 18, 2025
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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