Review: Woman in Mind | UK tour, Glasgow - Sheridan Smith shines in Ayckbourn's intense psychological comedy
- Lisa in the theatre
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 4 minutes ago
Following a three-month run in London's West End, Michael Longhurst's revival of Alan Ayckbourn's dark comedy play Woman in Mind arrived in Glasgow this week. Starring Olivier Award winner Sheridan Smith and comedian Romesh Ranganathan in his stage debut, Woman in Mind plays at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow until Saturday 14 March. Read my review below.
Woman in Mind ★★★★☆
Review: 10 March 2026 | Theatre Royal, Glasgow
On a thin strip of grass in front of a beautifully painted safety curtain, a woman lies still. Susan (Sheridan Smith) has stood on a garden rake and knocked herself out. She awakens to a bright summer's day and Dr Bill (Romesh Ranganathan) tending to her.
When Bill heads indoors to fetch Susan a drink, her beautiful family - husband Andy (Sule Rimi), daughter Lucy (Safia Oakley-Green), and brother Tony (Chris Jenks) bounce over from the tennis courts in their vast, rose-lined gardens to check on her.
When the doctor returns, however, we learn that Susan's garden is in fact tiny; and that her family has not come home yet. She must be hallucinating.
Soon after, Susan's real family arrive in the garden, and we find that they could not be more different from those that her fractured mind has conjured up.
Susan's actual husband Gerald (the excellent Tim McMullan) is a vicar who spends more time writing his book than with his wife; her sister-in-law Muriel (a brilliantly cantankerous Louise Brealey) is still living with them after her own misfortunes, and is close to poisoning them all with her terrible cooking; and their son Rick (Taylor Uttley) hasn't spoken to his parents for two years since joining a cult that forbids him to do so.
Directed by Michael Longhurst, much of the action at the beginning of Act I of this revival of Alan Ayckbourn's 1985 play 'Woman in Mind' takes place in front of the safety curtain, with Susan's imaginary family ducking in and out from under it. It's a little awkward, but the intention is unmistakable: Susan's world has split in two, and the small strip of grass is her reality. The colourfully dressed, charming family who are, somehow, leaking into it, are not.
When Soutra Gilmour's set does open up, it reveals a much larger wild garden backed by a warping video screen. As Susan's mind begins to fracture further, her mundane life becomes filled with wonder and colour, and the lines between fantasy and reality blur.
Alan Ayckbourn's writing is magnificent, and 'Woman in Mind' is a skillfully structured play. Susan's two worlds blend beautifully on stage, but of course, only Susan and the audience can see both of them. There's a satisfying number of clever call-backs in a book teeming with sharp dialogue and plenty of laugh-out-loud humour, but there's a real intensity, a darkness and a sense of threat running underneath the story.
Sheridan Smith gives a tour-de-force performance as the unfulfilled housewife, Susan, through whose eyes the curious psychological drama of the play takes place. Smith never leaves the stage, and she manages to be sympathetic, confused, hilarious and delirious simultaneously. It's a marathon performance for Smith, punctuated only by Susan's frequent blackouts that plunge the entire auditorium into shocking, unsettling full blackout with her.
Sherlock's Louise Brealey is quietly priceless as the grumpy sister-in-law who has overstayed her welcome. And comedian Romesh Ranganathan is perhaps unsurprisingly good in his stage acting debut. In the role of the nervous, flustered doctor who is sent to tend to Susan after her accident, Ranganathan showcases slick comic-timing but also a winning stage presence.
The small company of seven are all perfectly cast to complement Sheridan Smith's devastating central performance. Her character of Susan - a wife and mother unsatisfied with her lot - like the play, is timeless and endlessly fascinating.
'Woman in Mind' does descend into wild ridiculousness at the end, but psychology is beyond the limits of my expertise.... Who's to say what happens to your mind when you smack yourself on the head with a rake?
Excellent ★★★★☆
Woman in Mind is at Theatre Royal, Glasgow until Saturday 14 March. Tickets from ATG Tickets at: https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/woman-in-mind/theatre-royal-glasgow/
MORE: Woman in Mind cast announcement for the UK tour / Glasgow: https://www.lisainthetheatre.com/post/woman-in-mind-full-cast-news
See Romesh Ranganathan in Glasgow and Edinburgh in 2027
Romesh Ranganathan Will Change Your Life
King's Theatre, Glasgow Fri 8 Jan 2027
Edinburgh Playhouse Sat 9 Jan 2027
Liverpool Empire Fri 12 & Sat 13 Feb 2027
Buy tickets via ATG tickets here: https://www.atgtickets.com/shows/romesh-ranganathan-will-change-your-life/
