Wells Little Theatre – Woman in Mind

Written by Alan Ayckbourn, this witty and thought-provoking play follows Susan, a woman who escapes the frustrations of her everyday life by imagining a perfect family. As fantasy and reality begin to blur, the results are both hilarious and deeply moving.

The comic poet of middle-class life, always so very funny, goes deeper and darker in this triumphant play. Susan 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 realise that she is going that she is going mad.