Review by Stephen Stokoe
Woman in Mind
Sunderland Empire
4th March 2026
I am slightly ashamed to admit that I had no idea what this play was about before I attended this production at the iconic Sunderland Empire last evening. Alan Ayckbourn however, I am of course familiar with and having reviewed Just Between Ourselves a little while ago, I looked forward to seeing this production with its stellar cast including Sheridan Smith, Tim McMullen and Romesh Ranganathan. I was certainly not disappointed.
This play offers several laugh out loud moments with some outstanding performances from all the cast. The large audience thoroughly engaged with the production which amuses, confuses and befuddles in equal measures.
The pre-set really starts the bewilderment revealing a suburban garden interrupted by a stylised theatre safety curtain. It raises more questions than it answers even before the play begins. The lighting design (Lee Curren) adds to the tale with some dramatic blackouts one of which was right at the very beginning where we meet a prostrate suburban housewife who has smacked herself in the head having stood on a garden rake and knocked herself spark out.
The housewife in question is Susan (Sheridan Smith) and as she comes round is met with the concerned face of Doctor Bill Windsor (Romesh Ranganathan) who appears to be talking in tongues at her. This is one of many elements and themes which return throughout as Susan’s delusions and possible concussion manifest themselves.
The accident is the catalyst for Susan to evaluate her life with fastidious and self-absorbed vicar husband, Gerald (Tim McMullan), his dowdy, well-meaning but dotty sister, Muriel (Katie Buchholz) and their estranged son, Ricky (Taylor Uttley.) She also has an idyllic idea of what her life should be like including a passionate and attentive husband Andy (Sule Rimi) a devoted daughter Lucy (Safia Oakley-Green) and a dim-witted but ruggedly handsome Bear Grylls-esque brother Tony (Chris Jenks.) It is with the fantasy family that she finds herself drawn to in the aftermath of the bonk on the head. Susan, the audience, and the good doctor are all as confused as each other as the first scene unfolds. As she regains her fragile composure we are introduced to her real family one by one and uncover that she is deeply unhappy with the life they have forged together. She has a loveless relationship with her husband, a fraught alliance with her scatty sister-in-law and a distant connection with her one and only son who has joined a cult to escape the smothering attentions of his parents.
These two lives operate side by side as Susan’s mind gradually collide in a humorous, yet devastating conclusion and her fragile mental state pushes her over the edge.
The play as a whole is humorous but also a deep dive into this woman’s mental health, her reason for being, and her dreams of what might have been. It is uncomfortable to watch at times but with Ackbourn’s lexicological gymnastics the traumatic aspects of this poor woman’s descent into madness washes over the audience dulling the reality of the situation with an anaesthetic of dry wit and caustic commentary, largely from Susan herself.
Smith is superb as the ever present Susan. She delivers her lines with confidence, exceptional timing, and some brilliant mannerisms which endear her character to the audience from start to finish. McMullan is also outstanding as her dry, dull Vicar husband. His well-meaning quips and offered advice suggest a character perhaps not quite a wholesome as the one he projects to the outside world. Understudy Bushholz stepped up magnificently as the culinarily challenged and frankly bonkers, Muriel. In the fantasy world Rimi, Oakley-Green and Jenks excelled as the perfect family but it was as these two worlds collided that we learn that, even in this ideal vision, the characters have their faults and perhaps, Susan is never destined to be happy.
Romesh Ranganathan steals the comedy award with his nervous laugh, misfiring briefcase lock, and accident-prone gait and rightly received the lion’s share of the laughs from the audience. This does not, however take away from the incredibly hard working Sheridan Smith and the rest of the cast. Uttley offers a sober, thoughtful son who has been uncurably scarred by his father’s righteousness and his mother’s brusque previous behaviour.
Director Michael Longhurst and all the other creatives have created a production which is entertaining and thought provoking with a special mention to Lighting Designer Lee Curran and video designer Andrzej Goulding whose efforts disrupt and confound as Susan’s mental state deteriorates. The costume design (Soutra Gilmour) is also noteworthy with the real world painted in pastels and dowdy drabness, the fantasy in cartoon-esque vividly bright colours and Susan, herself, somewhere in between.
Aykbourn is two for two in my absolute enjoyment of his plays. I will certainly look forward to any other productions as they reach the north east.
A Woman in Mind has brains, soul and some devastating heart!