Critics go crazy for Sheridan Smith 

The 40th anniversary revival of Alan Aykbourn‘s play about a repressed housewife who, following a blow to the head, enters a fantasy world, was welcomed by critics, not necessarily because of the play, which some found dated, but because of the quality of Sheridan Smith‘s performance. Michael Longhurst‘s direction was appreciated. Romesh Ranganathan‘s West End debut was widely liked.

[Links to full reviews are included but a number are behind paywalls and therefore may not be accessible]

4 stars ★★★★

Clare Allfree confessed in the Telegraph: ‘I’ve always thought this play to be one of Ayckbourn’s very best – it mixes his particular blend of suburban comic pathos with a febrile dash of horror. Longhurst’s revival is correspondingly both a Middle England sitcom and a psychedelic fever dream.’ She was impressed that: ‘Smith … gives us a thoroughly specific character study of a flawed and complicated woman, forced to bury her vivacious sexuality in the depths of a soulless marriage, but who is no straight-forward victim either.’ She noted: ‘Soutra Gilmour’s magic lantern set seems itself to quiver with nervous energy, disconcertingly flipping between hallucination and normality, and with everything drenched in hyper-bright light.’

As you’ll see below, some critics found the 40 year old play dated but for Olivia Rook at LondonTheatre, the ‘story of an ordinary woman in turmoil has just as much resonance now as it did then.’ She liked the way ’emotions are always bubbling beneath the surface’ in Sheridan Smith’s performance. She praised all the cast: Romesh Ranganathan ‘brings an amiable, bumbling, nervous energy, frequently breaking into awkward laughter. Tim McMullan is a hoot as Susan’s dismissive and dull husband Gerald… and is matched by Louise Brealey as his stiff yet neurotic sister Muriel’.

‘It’s so cheering to see the West End can still take risks’ said The Times’ Clive Davis.

3 stars ★★★

The Guardian‘s Arifa Akbar reported: ‘the play stands the test of time for its originality and boldness: this is a critique of the emptiness of married life and the desperation that a woman feels inside it that takes us from the domestic drudge to high-wire supernaturalism. When it works, it is unnerving. The imaginary family is creepy for its wooden perfection and performative warmth. You feel the chill building as they turn into nightmarish tormentors.’

On the other hand, WhatsOnStage‘s Sarah Crompton found it dated: ‘The problem with the play 40 years on is that, although its truths are universal, its characters are very much of its time.’ She appreciated Sheridan Smith’s performance: ‘She is infinitely moving, her little gestures and movements of discontent convincing, her face a constant reflection of her shifting moods of disappointment, anger and sadness, utterly convincing as both her worlds spin out of control. It’s a lovely, naturalistic performance, but it exposes the artificiality of the play.’

The Standard‘s Nick Curtis also found it ‘somewhat dated material’. He thought: ‘concept overwhelms character: everyone, including Susan, is thinly drawn.’ Fortunately, ‘it works thanks to Smith. She has a uniquely vivid physical presence, and her emotions are shimmeringly close to the surface.’

Sam Marlowe in The Stage gave the same message: ‘If there’s a good reason to see this dated, blunt-edged and ultimately exasperating 1985 work by the doggedly prolific Alan Ayckbourn, it will surprise practically no one that it is Sheridan Smith (…) the play is a study in acute mental crisis that is constantly undermined by its structural games, the drama choked off by formal conceit. It doesn’t help that the portrayal of psychological agony seems, to 21st-century eyes, crude and unconvincing; or that, aside from the tormented Susan, the characters are flat and cartoonish’.

Time Out‘s Andrzej Lukowski described Sheridan Smith as: ‘a wonderful and empathetic actor who effortlessly covers Susan’s considerable emotional terrain and the requirement to play hero, villain and victim all at once.’ However, ‘Watching Smith switch between families and moods is impressive and even thrilling, but the longer it went on the less I understood what point Ayckbourn was trying to make beyond a technical exercise.’

The Independent‘s Alice Saville had a similar view: ‘it feels that Ayckbourn is ultimately more interested in the creative possibilities of madness than in probing too deeply into its underlying causes.’

Critics’ average rating 3.3⭑

Value rating 33 (Value rating is the Critics’ average rating divided by the typical ticket price)

Woman in Mind can be seen at the Duke of York’s until 28 February 2026. Buy tickets directly at thedukeofyorks.com ; it will then tour to Sunderland Empire 4-7 March and Theatre Royal, Glasgow, 10-14 March. womaninmindplay.com

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