Escape into Fantasy
“Not a man of few words when several spring to mind.”
Rick about his father Gerald
After hitting her head by standing on a rake, suburban housewife Susan (Sheridan Smith) discovers an exciting fantasy world full of sex, love and brilliant family. Her reality couldn’t be more different with her turgid vicar husband Gerald (Tim McMullan) and his ghastly sister Muriel (Louise Brealey) who claims to be a cook and thinks you make coffee by pouring hot water onto ground coffee as if it were instant.
Straddling both worlds is her friend Dr Bill Windsor (Romesh Ranganathan). We are not quite sure what kind of a doctor he is but in Ranganathan’s hands his comic timing is second to none. This is Romesh Ranganathan’s acting debut and so successful that I suspect we may see more of him gracing the London stage.
I found myself groaning at the boring Gerald with his tedious homilies, delivered with frequency and insensitivity. He is absorbed with writing his 60 page history of the parish. Worse is his po-faced sister Muriel who has conversations with her dead husband. He probably died of food poisoning but Muriel counts herself as the lynchpin of the household with her dreadful cooking and flying off the handle temperament when challenged by Susan.
The beautiful sets from Soutra Gilmour are full of gardens, the first is suburban normality and the second beautiful and wild overgrown grass on a larger estate. Even the Stage Curtain has been painted with plants and flowers. And the imaginary family are prettily dressed in pastels.
Whereas her fantasy family features a daughter Lucy (Safia Oakley-Green) planning to get married and a brother Tony (Chris Jenks) who plays tennis, the reality is her son Rick played by Taylor Uttley. Rick has been living for two years in a semi-religious sect in Hemel Hempstead that forbids him talking to his own family which is a source of distress to his mother. He comes home in the second act full of surprises for his mother whose mental health is now rapidly disintegrating. His reason for coming home is to sell off the contents of his room to raise money in order to go abroad. I noticed that Taylor Uttley has a young female following in the audience, maybe due to the actor’s role in the BBC series Beyond Paradise.
It is the handsome Sule Rimi as Andy, Susan’s love interest who demonstrates the welcome, romantic affection for her so lacking in her real marriage. Instead of being harrowing as real mental breakdown is, this is a light comedy with an excellent central performance from Sheridan Smith.
Editor of TheatreVibe.co.uk
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Production Notes
Woman in Mind
Written by Alan Ayckbourn
Directed by Michael Longhurst
Cast
Starring:
Sheridan Smith
Louise Brealey
Romesh Ranganathan
Tim McMullan
Chris Jenks
Sule Rimi
Safia Oakley-Green
Taylor Uttley
Creatives
Director: Michael Longhurst
Designer: Soutra Gilmour
Lighting Designer: Lee Curran
Sound Director: Paul Arditti
Information
Running Time: Two hours 20 minutes including the interval
Booking to 28th February 2026
Theatre:
Duke of York’s Theatre
104 St Martin’s Lane
London WC2N 4BG
Phone: 03330 096 690
Website: atgtickets.com
Tube: Charing Cross
Reviewed by
Lizzie Loveridge at the
Duke of York’s Theatre on 7th January 2026