Historical Context

Historical Context for 'A Woman in Mind'

[lilywillden-hc]

unit 4, criteria 2.

how could it be performed in a new and modern way?

‘a woman in mind’ is such a basic plot that it is timeless. the play could and has been performed any time between and when it was written and now and has always been relatable.

contemporary design potential;

the play is so organic, being set in a garden, that the only effecting factors would be the lighting. the play quickly changes from day to night and shine to bleak skies, and especially the scene with the sudden rainstorm. all kinds of lighting techniques like flashing movers and soft pink under lighting could dramatically change the otherwise plain set.

modern relevance;

the play is relevant today because the stubble of not feeling loved or appreciated in your home. with a husband who ignores her feelings and a son who's abandoned her she becomes very relatable to all mothers at some point in their live and even every one else who even has a family.

[lilywillden-hc]

most of the sets for a woman in mind have been green grassed garden with trees and or garden furniture.

[lilywillden-hc]

Although the original Scarborough production ran to full capacity, the reviews in the national papers were very mixed. Martin Hoyle for the Financial Times praised the play for Ayckbourn venturing into new darker territory whilst remaining a uniquely Ayckbourn play. Robin Thornber for The Guardian, meanwhile, was particularly positive with about the way Ayckbourn combined the character's ideal fantasy world with her bleak real word. At the other end of the scale, however, Martin Cropper, writing in The Times derided the play for all characters, real or pretend, being Ayckbourn stock characters.

However, the West End production had a much better reception, with critics agreeing the play had matured and – in spite of Ayckbourn's views to the contrary – that the play worked better in the Proscenium than the Round. Julia McKenzie was especially singled out for praise and won the Evening Standard award for best actress for her portrayal as Susan .Roger Glossop's set design also received praise for its J. M. Barrie-esque sinister and seductive ambiance. In addition, Julia Mackenzie also received many anecdotal stories of how members of the audience had been affected by the play, including a woman who couldn't leave at the end whilst her son said "Mum, Mum," a father and daughter who spoke afterwards about things they had kept silent for years, and an actor who came to her dressing room and cried. Alan Ayckbourn's own anecdote was of two women competitively boasting of how the play represented their lives.

The American première was also successful, with Stockard Channing winning a Drama Desk Award for best actress.

The 2008–2009 revival was also generally received positively. In spite of this, the play closed one month earlier than originally intended and replaced with Duet for One by Tom Kempinski.

[lilywillden-hc]

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. 

a Woman in Mind was the last play written by Ayckbourn before his two-year sabbatical. Most of it was written while Ayckbourn was on holiday in the Virgin Islands 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 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.

One theme was Susan's relationship to her son who joined a cult that forbids communication with parents, which was considered to be an attack on organised religion. It was said, the play is "not only about an emotionally neglected middle-aged woman's descent into madness but also the failure of the orthodox Christian morality to cope with individual unhappiness."

Unlike most of Ayckbourn's earlier plays, which were often completed the day before rehearsals began, Woman in Mind was completed a week earlier than he expected. Ayckbourn himself was conscious that this play was radically different from his earlier plays in that the audience is expected to engage with a character whose perceptions are unreliable. His agent was sceptical as to whether an audience would accept such an unconventional play, and as the publicity went out before Ayckbourn had begun writing, an unusual brochure note was issued.

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.

Originally intending to have a male central character, Ayckbourn found that a woman's voice was emerging, and felt that the public would be more sympathetic to a woman, and therefore he changed the sex. Ayckbourn has also commented that he did not want the central character to be a man in case audiences took the play to be autobiographical. Nevertheless, Paul Allen, Ayckbourn's biographer, believes that Woman in Mind is Ayckbourn's most personal play and that a major influence on it may have been a breakdown suffered by his mother in the 1950s. He also suggested that Susan's relationship to her son may have been influenced by Alan Ayckbourn's relationship with his son Steven, at the time in a community in California (albeit not a non-speaking cult). This view is not shared by everyone, but it is generally agreed that Woman in Mind is a very personal play to Ayckbourn.

Woman in Mind received its world premiere at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in the Round, Scarborough, on 30 May 1985. The production was directed by Ayckbourn and the cast consisted of:

• Ursula Jones as Susan

• Barry McCarthy as Bill

• Robin Herford as Andy

• Caroline Webster as Lucy

• John Hudson as Tony

• Russell Dixon as Gerald

• Heather Stoney as Muriel

• Tom Bowles as Rick

The production team consisted of:

• Director: Alan Ayckbourn

• Design: Adrian P Smith

• Lighting: Francis Lynch

• Musical Director: Paul Todd

[lilywillden-hc]

unit 4, criteria 1. Plot.

‘a woman in mind’ is about a woman who starts to imagine a life and family better than her own after hitting her head with a rake. 

The central character is Susan. Susan is a housewife who is forgotten and unloved by her husband and is rejected by her estranged son. in her imaginary world she is adored and loved by her family who remind she is loved and needed at every possible point.

• Gerald, Susan's real husband, a vicar whose interest in his wife has long since faded in favour of his book and undivided attention to his sister;

• Muriel, live-in sister to Gerald, dead weight about the house, self-centred, and an unimaginably bad cook;

• Rick, Susan's real son, who joined a cult that forbids members to speak to their parents; and

• Bill Windsor, Susan's doctor who has a greater fondness for Susan than one would expect.

Contrasting Susan's own family are three imaginary characters, existing only in Susan's mind (and therefore visible to the audience):

• Andy, Susan's imaginary husband, handsome, devoted, master cook, and everything missing from Gerald;

• Tony, Susan's imaginary young brother, again devoted, mischievous, and presumably compensation for Gerald's devotion to Muriel; and

• Lucy, Susan's imaginary daughter, beautiful, close, and, unlike Rick, shares every secret with her.

the play starts off with a confused and disorientated susan who's been in some sort of accident and cannot understand what anyone is saying. we find out through bill she has hit her head by standing on a rake. we soon meet her imaginary family. in this world she lives in a huge house with a large garden with a tennis court and pools that go as far as you can see. her family feed her champagne and luxurious food and are sympathetic and loving abut her accident. we then get interrupted by her real husband who's a stuffy vicar who cares more about himself and his book than caring for or about his wife. 

throughout the book we swap through the different world learning more about susan herself and how she thinks of herself than we do about the other character. at one point in the book her chid rick comes to visit and explains that he is married and has left the cult he was a part of but still hasn't come to see his family or introduced his wife to then because of his mothers over bearing attitude. 

the book ends in a climax of confusion as when it seems like susan is in her imaginary world susans real family start to show up and interact with her imaginary ones, completely ignoring her which has not happened so for so far every conversation has always been centred around susan.