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A play in two minds
Woman in mind
Birmingham Rep
**** ALAN Ayckbourn’s chronicle of a woman's
descent into madness is a strange beast, at times a domestic comedy, at
times a fantasy, and finally a surreal and disturbing farce. First performed in 1985 much has been made of the
perceived hidden meansings and messages of what is seen as one of
Ayckbourn’s most personal plays. He is said to have changed the central
character from a man to Susan so people would not think he was writing
about himself. He readily admits that the central character is
influenced by his mother’s unhappy marriage to a bank manager in the
1950s while Susan’s son, Rick, joining a cult might have had its echoes
in Ayckbourn’s own son Steven joining a Californian cult. Whatever, provenance may be interesting but a lay
stands or falls on what happens on stage and this joint production with
Dundee Rep Ensamble ticks most of the boxes. Meg Fraser is superb as the troubled Susan. She
is onstage for the whole play and is produces a witty, funny and
ultimatey touching performance with immaculate comic timing.We first
meet her as she comes round after being knocked out by a garden rake in
her tiny back garden. Of a home she shares with her vicar husband
Gerald, who gives boring a bad name. Gerald, played with a splendidly infuriating self
righteousness by Richard Conlon, has long ago lost romantic or sexual
interest in Susan, fallen out of love in favour of
As an indication of how far apart Susan and
Gerald have drifted he also pays more attention to his live in sister,
the self centred, and somewhat stupid Muriel Muriel, played nicely by
Irene Macdougall. Muriel’s greatest claim to fame is her
spectacular lack of culinary skills producing meals which are never
forgotten by those who have survived them, however hard they try – burnt
elderberry omelette was her lunch speciality on the day of the play.
Rick, played with that touch of angst any parent
would recognise by Scott Hoatson, has not spoken to his parents for two
years - the rules of the cult – but is now back in the land of the
talking and has a secret to impart along with some home truths for
Susan. Holding it all together, he isn’t really but he
is the nearest Susan has to an authority figure, is the local doctor
Bill Windsor, played with a delightful vagueness by Neil McKinven, who
revels a more than professional fondness for Susan as he attempts to
administer to her medical needs after a severe bump on the head. That is the real world inhabited by Susan, a
loveless marriage, a fraught relationship with a son, and a mixture of
hostility and contempt for her sister-in-law. Whether it is her bump on the head or the life
that has trapped her we never really know although it would be
reasonable to assume such complete and well established fantasy might
need more than a blow from standing on the business end of a garden rake
could create. This is a whole world where the tiny garden has
become an estate with lake, woods, tennis court and a whole family who
seem to have wandered in from the next estate to Downton Abbey sometime
in the 1920s. There is adoring husband Andy, sophisticated,
attentive, brilliant chef and presumable extremely rich played with a
bit of dash by Andrew Wincott, stunningly attractive daughter Lucy, who
unlike Rick, is close and shares even her innermost thoughts with
mother, played up market style by Laura Dale and there is Susan’s ever
loving brother Tony, played with a hint of casual violence, at least
when he is out shooting in the estate, by
That presents a rather obvious flaw in the
brother and sister relationship but it is after all a fantasy, so Susan
can have who she likes in her imaginary family. The family of her mind are in many ways the
opposites of the family of her life with attentive husband, loving,
sharing daughter and a brother looking after her every need rather than
the fractious relationship with a self-centred sister-in-law who cares
more about her dead husband than anyone else. At first the sophisticated family inhabiting the
estate of her mind are mere visitors, passers by interrupting reality,
but as the play goes on they become more and more part of her life until
eventually both worlds collide in her final descent into madness.
There are some very funny lines, particularly the
sniping between the rather pompous Gerald, and Susan, and some funny
lines which should strike a chord, sometimes uncomfortably with parents
and long-time married couples. Timing throughout is excellent with plenty of
throw away lines which may appear to be discarded afterthoughts but
placed with beautifully care for maximum effect. Ti Green’s simple design of a small lawn and
rockery, surrounded by the trees of the imaginary estate, depends upon
Mark Doubleday’s excellent lighting to carry us from reality to fantasy,
with an effective thunderstorm thrown in. There is a clever angled
stage, almost a window into Susan’s mind hung above the stage where we
see snapshots of people inside, or elements of the seasons ion video
projections, which is quite effective while director Marilyn Imrie has
kept a nice balance between a funny, if rather barbed comedy and the
realisation that we are watching a mental illness develop. The second half seems to flag a little, perhaps
as the neuroses collide, or the madness gathers breath before moving the
plot on but you cannot fault the acting or production. It is a
fascinating and at times disturbing performance particularly as we start
to realise that we cannot rely on anything Susan tells us – even her
reality might be a complete fiction. To might not be true To 28-06-14 Roger Clarke
17-06-14
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his
book, a mammoth tome of all of 60 pages on the history of the parish
since 1368.
Ncuti
Gatwa, who is originally from Rwanda.