Woman in Mind

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However, next to her fictional family, they are saints, as the trio, doting husband, Andy (Steve Burt), irrepressible brother Tony (Ben Tanner) and perfect daughter, Lucy (Kirsty Terry) lead us all into a darker, disturbing world. At the time of going to press a high wall of secrecy surrounds this project. Some have the theory that the reason for this is to protect such highly original comic material from the risk of plagiarism. Others, more cynical, suggest that it could be due to the fact that the author hasn't started on it yet and is anxious not to commit himself. Right from the outset the eerie lighting courtesy of the excellent technical team creates an atmosphere of otherworldliness and confusion, and the minimalist staging perfectly complements this focus on lighting to allow the imagination of Susan to be externally portrayed in a vivid and alluring way. Whilst the first act may have benefited from a change in lighting to give more momentum to the gradually developing plot, the second act marvellously manipulates lighting and staging to enhance the psychological themes and characters’ interactions, resulting in a highly charged and vivid act that brings out the true life of the characters and the issues that shape the play.

Director Andrew Caple and his technical team have produced an interesting garden setting complete with lawn, pots and trellis, while the sound technicians have excelled with tortuous magnified voices and weather effects. Wardrobe too have ensured the cast are appropriately well costumed.If you happened to have hurt a lady through thoughtless word, action, or inaction, and you would like to explain yourself, but do not know her mind, you must know that your approach, necessarily, depends greatly upon what you did or said that was so disruptive. Because of the nature of this particular play, it is likely that some members of the audience will stop laughing before the others do. Generally, the women stopped earlier on! As Susan, Sally Hartley gives one of the most astonishing performances in local theatre it has ever been my pleasure to witness. Measured, believable, truthful, both vulnerable and strong and utterly convincing. Coming across like a companion piece to Anthony Neilson's The Wonderful World of Dissocia, Woman in Mind is a funny and unsettling vision of mental ill health, its cosy rituals of family life acting as a thin veneer to cover Susan's awful inner torment. There are moments towards the end, immediately before Susan goes into what I call a supernova state, when the whole thing gets very bright and it's like Alice in Wonderland, completely dotty, when you get a glimpse, just for a second, of the real Gerald. There are still a lot of things wrong with him, but we begin to see his point of view - that he is dealing with a woman he doesn't understand because he doesn't recognise mental instability as an illness.

Susan, a middle aged housewife, lives a drab, disappointed existence. Ignored by her husband, disowned by her son, she survives by conjuring up an imaginary family with whom she can live out her dreams. But when the strain gets too much, fantasy and reality start to collide in an increasingly absurd and comic sequence of events. Andy, Susan's imaginary husband, handsome, devoted, master cook, and everything missing from Gerald; The grim reality is very different: husband Gerald (clergyman's son Paul Toy) is a self-obsessed priggish vicar, always in another room writing his interminably dull, interminably long parish history since 1387. They have reached the separate bed stage already. Comedy and tragedy work closely together and here it is mainly provided by Gerald’s sister Muriel (Stephanie Jacob). Her attitude and resentful ‘put upon’ demeanour are a joy to watch as she stomps on and off stage. Recently widowed, she is now living with them and has brought along her husband’s spirit, sure that he will appear to her one day. If he remembers her ‘surprise omelette’, he will probably keep well clear. It could be that which finished him off. There is a lovely, understated comedy in Matthew Cottle’s doctor Bill, although a little too much time was spent on ‘entertaining’ an invisible child with a handkerchief mouse.There is plenty of enjoyment to be had from this moving production as the accomplished cast unravel Susan’s torment and appear to be talking nonsense! Only this isn’t Susan’s real family. It is wish-fulfilment in the form of hallucination, the creation of a prettier home life where she is richer, smarter, and more loved by those around her. It is Susan’s reaction to a banal real-life home that is a terrifying amplification of many of the classic concerns of Middle England, complete with a loveless marriage and a son that no longer speaks to her. The chances of being forgiven by a woman lessens if you wronged her or humiliated her deeply. She may shut you out.

Tinny beers a show. High december how rotten high trade fat haywood throw twig and throng hike hair share rents. Pie lank hod hat day lid! Hens, hang few saw paw up-short. Hang few. Hang few, hens, sizzle pie tart insole. Grey ice way chew...? Grey ice way...? The woman is Susan; neglected by her insensitive, loud-mouthed husband Gerald and rejected by their only son, the poor woman feels useless and hopeless. Is it surprising that she invents an ideal loving family with an enviable lifestyle and a dwelling with vast grounds compete with lake, tennis courts and swimming pool. This new family become reality to her, so real that they actually appear surrounding her with love and acclaim, a different world for her to escape her unhappy life. For a long time she is between the two worlds, but gradually they intertwine, sometimes confusingly but eventually, and tragically, the imaginary world takes over and refuses to leave. Susan Woman in Mind is a play about a woman slowly losing her grip on reality. She has reached a sexual, social and intellectual crossroads. She is a vicar's wife who has fancifully invented another family straight out of a 1950s magazine: a husband with a white suit, a slightly mischievous brother and a lovely daughter who adores her. Her family are, in fact, an extremely gloomy set of people, but I wrote the play from this woman's point of view, inviting the audience to empathise with her. In the end the woman has a breakdown and just closes down altogether, which is very upsetting.

Gerald

At first, the imaginary characters are distinguished from the real characters by their white summery outfits. However, as Susan's mind goes out of control, the real characters start entering Susan's imaginary world, until it is very difficult to tell what is real and what is pretend. My mother, during the school holidays took me everywhere with her, often to London (we lived in Sussex) to visit publishers and editors, practically all female. And I sat there all the while, as they talked of this and that, a small boy listening - and largely unnoticed.