Competition: Woman in Mind – People’s Theatre, Newcastle
Image by Paula Smart: Penny Lamport as Susan (centre) in Woman In Mind
A dark comedy by prolific playwright Alan Ayckbourn runs at Newcastle’s People’s Theatre in May – and we’ve got a pair of tickets to give away.
Celebrating the National Theatre’s revival of Ayckbourn’s A Small Family Business, The People’s Theatre, based on Newcastle’s Coast Road, have decided to stage one of the writer’s blacker comedies.
Much different from a lot of Ayckbourn’s earlier work, and considered by many to be one of his best, the play charts the gradual mental collapse of Susan (Penny Lamport), a housewife and mother who is no longer sure what her role in the world is.
Her disinterested husband, priggish son and appalling sister-in-law do nothing to help her make her life meaningful. So she retreats into fantasy, creating in her mind an ideal world with a perfect family and a glorious country estate.
The play is told through Susan’s eyes, and as she declines the line between the real world and her imaginings gets increasingly blurry, and fantasy and reality become confused.
Kate Wilkins, who directs this production, said: “It’s something of a ‘taboo’ subject for comedy, but Ayckbourn has created beautifully drawn characters. It’s funny, poignant and very affecting”.
Woman in Mind became an audience favourite when it premiered in Scarborough in 1985, with Ayckbourn himself taking the directorial reins, leading to a run in the West End.
The tragi-comedy transferred to Manhattan, where Stockard Channing took on the lead role.
The production fronts the theatre’s programme of comedy drama, which continues later this month with Richard Harris’ Stepping Out which received the Evening Standard Comedy of the Year Award and was later adapted into a musical comedy film starring Liza Minnelli and Julie Walters.
The theatre is currently undergoing a fundraising drive to raise £1.5 million to refurbish and develop the theatre.
For your chance to win a pair of tickets to see the show, answer to the following question:
In which seaside town did Woman in Mind premiere?
Send your answers to [email protected] by 5pm on Monday 5 May. Please also specify the day you would like to see the play: Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.
Good luck!
Woman in Mind runs from Tuesday 6 to Saturday 10 May at The People’s Theatre in Heaton, Newcastle. Tickets are available from the Box Office on 0191 265 5020 and online.
