Woman In Mind: History

In 1986, Alan Ayckbourn announced he was to take a sabbatical from Scarborough to become a visiting director at the National Theatre in London. It would mark a watershed in his career and he would return from London with far more critical respect as a writer and director than when he left Scarborough.

His final play before he took his sabbatical from the
Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round was Woman In Mind. It was itself an unlikely departure for the playwright and was initially greeted by a mixed, even occasionally bewildered response. Yet its transfer to London and subsequent productions led to it being acclaimed as one of Alan Ayckbourn’s most powerful plays. To this day it stands as one of the significant turning points in Alan’s writing career and the wider perception of his work.
Behind The Scenes: Man In Mind
Woman In Mind was initially conceived with a man as the central character, who having suffered a heart attack could hear what was going on around him, but was not able to communicate with anyone. Alan quickly changed this to a woman, feeling that it was slightly easier to tell the story with a female voice and that a woman would be a more sympathetic character.
It is not though - at least in the playwright's own mind - the most autobiographical of his plays as has been suggested by some high-profile commentators, including his biographer Paul Allen. The play is - essentially - about a woman undergoing a nervous breakdown and Alan has always been quick to deny it is based on his experiences with his mother and, in 2012, when questioned on the subject, he noted it no more reflected his life and experiences than any other play he had written: "Most of my plays at some level are autobiographical. I think Woman in Mind, in the end, is no more and no less than many others."

Woman In Mind was written in April 1985 and inspired by Alan’s desire to write a play which was essentially cinematic in approach without cutting away from the main character or featuring cumbersome scene changes. Its subjective view-point - a rarity in Alan’s plays - was also indirectly inspired by the film Dead On Arrival, which notably is a first-person story in which the final revelation is the narrator is dead (apologies to anyone who has not seen the film!). He had also been reading Oliver Sacks’s The Man Who Mistook His Wife For A Hat, a seminal book exploring how the brain functions and what can happen when it goes wrong. Although, as Alan has emphasised, he did not do any actual medical research into the lead character Susan’s condition, instead drawing it from observation, experience and imagination.

It is also a play which tackles, as the critic Michael Billington noted, organised religion and its possible shortcomings in contemporary society. This would be the first of several acclaimed plays to look at wider issues in the 1980s such as the media in
Man Of The Moment, business and morality in A Small Family Business and the nature of the creative artist in Henceforward….

At this time, Alan was still writing to the latest possible deadline (generally the day before rehearsals began) and was surprised that for the first time in his life, he had finished the play a week earlier than anticipated. He wrote to his agent that he was quite excited by the direction it had taken, but his agent, Margaret 'Peggy' Ramsay, was not as convinced audiences would lap up such a demanding play. Here, as many times before and since, Alan firmly believed there was nothing wrong in making demands of an audience or presenting a play which might generate very different responses depending on the experiences of the audience. It is a play Alan noted where: “there are always going to be those who find the tragedy outweighs the comedy and vice versa. And, depending on the night of the week, this balance will alter quite drastically.”
Behind The Scenes: Reverend Inspiration
The actor Martin Jarvis recalls he was told one of the inspirations for the character of Susan's husband, Gerald the vicar. "I can remember rehearsing Woman In Mind and Alan just stopped the rehearsal one day and said, ‘Gerald’s based on my step-father, you know. I remember once when he was saying something sanctimonious one mealtime, my mother picked up a bowl of potatoes and emptied the bowl over his head. And the expression on his face was something like long-suffering, sacrificial ‘forgive her lord for she knows not what she does’, something like that’."
That said, when the play came to be advertised, the prospective audience was left very much in the dark as to what it was about, the publicity having gone out before Alan had begun writing, leading to an extraordinary brochure note:

"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."

Woman In Mind opened at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round in May 1985 featuring company stalwart Russell Dixon as Susan’s husband Gerald, Ursula Jones as Susan and introducing Barry McCarthy as Bill; he would go on to become a fixture of the company and become regarded as a quintessential Ayckbourn actor. The run was practically full to capacity, yet the critics were divided in their reactions to the play.

Whilst several felt this was a brave move into new territory for the playwright, there was some concern that Alan was moving into far darker territory than he was generally associated with. Considering the plays which followed, these critics had no idea how dark his plays would turn! Ursula Jones’ performance received mixed reviews but whether this was due to issues with the character of Susan or the actress herself is unclear, such was the demanding nature of the role.

This did not deter the producer Michael Codron who was determined to take the play into London; his and Alan’s only problem was who to cast as Susan? A number of high profile names were considered but no-one stuck until Alan saw the television adaptation of his play
Absent Friends in which Julia McKenzie played the lead role of Diana. Alan thought she was “really superb” and he urged Codron to seriously consider her. It was a risky choice. Julia McKenzie was largely known as a musical theatre actress and to hand over this pivotal role to her was taking quite a gamble. Susan is the focal point of Woman In Mind and never leaves the stage; it is an extremely emotional and physically challenging role. The decision to cast her, however, turned out to be inspired.
Behind The Scenes: Absent Woman
Ironically, prior to Alan seeing Julia McKenzie in Absent Friends on television, both he and the producer Michael Codron had decided the actress - who had previously appeared in the West End productions of Ten Times Table and the recast of The Norman Conquests - was probably unsuitable for the role of Susan!
Despite these misgivings, some of which even the actress carried, the play opened at the Vaudeville Theatre in London in September 1986 and was greeted with a very different set of reviews to that of Scarborough. The critics agreed the play had matured between Scarborough and London and that it seemed better suited to the proscenium arch - something Alan disagrees with believing the London production became too complex in its staging. Julia McKenzie was gifted with stunning reviews and would win the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress. The production would also introduce Alan to the designer Roger Glossop, the first of many productions they would work on together and who would also design for Alan's 2008 Scarborough revival and its transfer to London in 2009.

In 1988, the Manhattan Theatre Club produced the play in New York where Alan had previously had mixed fortunes. Stockard Channing - better known as Rizzo in the film
Grease and for her award-winning role as President Bartlet’s wife, Abigail, in the TV series The West Wing - played Susan. Like Julia McKenzie before her, she won over the critics with a powerful performance for which she won the Drama Desk Best Actress award.

The success of
Woman In Mind in London could not have come at a better time. Within the next few months Alan was to win great acclaim for his award-winning production of Arthur Miller’s A View From The Bridge and his latest play, A Small Family Business, both produced at the National Theatre. The darker themes of Woman In Mind carried through to A Small Family Business and beyond as Alan’s next play Henceforward… moved into even darker territory. All of these led to critics re-evaluating Ayckbourn, noting both his gifts as a director and also that there was far more depth to his playwriting than many had previously given him credit for.

The legacy of
Woman In Mind was also a powerful one. The audience reaction to the piece in London went above and beyond anyone’s expectations with both Alan and Julia receiving correspondence from people who had experienced similar traumatic events in their lives and empathised with what Julia was portraying on stage. For both actor and playwright, it must have been a sobering realisation of the ordeal some women were going through in their lives. That is not to say the laughter was not there too and although both men and women enjoyed the play, Alan noted “I think the women in the audience stop laughing long before the men.”
Behind The Scenes: Final Bow
As of writing, Woman In Mind marked the final time Alan Ayckbourn directed in the West End. After his experiences in 2001 with the West End transfer of Damsels In Distress, Alan vowed never to take his work into the West End again. The success and critical acclaim of his 2008 revival of Woman In Mind at the Stephen Joseph Theatre alongside the opportunity to take Janie Dee and the Scarborough company into the West End persuaded him to return for a limited run of the production. Having had a much more positive West End experience, it is probably safe to assume this marked his swan song in the West End.
Julia McKenzie would return to the role of Susan in 2000 when it was adapted for BBC Radio 3, reuniting her with Martin Jarvis as Gerald. This was a remarkably successful adaptation largely because Susan’s imaginary world was not constrained by the stage, but was left to the audience’s own imaginations. The play was again adapted for the radio by the BBC in 2014 during Alan's 75th anniversary year with Lesley Sharp as Susan, Malcolm Sinclair as Gerald and Ben Miles as Bill Windsor with Emma Harding directing.

Despite the challenges the play presents, it has been popular ever since 1985 and has been frequently staged since shortly after its closure in the West End in July 1987; intriguingly, it is a particular favourite with international productions. In 2008, Alan Ayckbourn revived it at the
Stephen Joseph Theatre with Janie Dee playing Susan; he had been keen to revive it for several years with her - apparently in competition with Sir Peter Hall in this wish! The production received practically unanimous praise and led to a surprise decision by the playwright.

In 2003, Alan had quit the West End after the handling of his
Damsels In Distress trilogy. Only in 2007 had he agreed to let his plays be performed again in London, but he gave no indication he had any intention of returning to direct there. The critical reception for Woman In Mind, combined with Janie Dee’s enthusiasm for the role and interest from several producers, led Alan to decide to revive the production in London for a limited season, again at the Vaudeville Theatre. Coincidentally, this also became his first production after retiring as Artistic Director of the Stephen Joseph Theatre and the first major event of 2009, the 50th anniversary of Alan’s first play, The Square Cat and his 70th birthday.

Frequently performed by both professional and amateur companies,
Woman In Mind has proved to be perennially popular and the most recent significant revival was by Chichester Festival Theatre in 2022, directed by Anna Mackmin and starring Jenna Russell

Woman In Mind is now regarded as a defining play in Alan Ayckbourn's career and is frequently cited as featuring one of the best and most challenging roles for women on stage in the late 20th century.

Frequently Asked Question: One of the most frequently asked questions regarding Woman In Mind is what is Bill Windsor actually saying to the concussed Susan in the first scene and what is Susan saying as she experiences her total breakdown in the second scene. Alan Ayckbourn's own translation of this dialogue can be found here.

Article by Simon Murgatroyd. Copyright: Haydonning Ltd. Please do not reproduce without permission of the copyright holder.
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The Woman In Mind section of the website is supported by and dedicated to Maria Sykes.