Photo by Marc Brenner
Grace doesn’t usually get worked up about production photos. They tend to confirm what we already know: costumes exist, actors are standing in rooms, a show is definitely happening.
But the release of first images for Woman in Mind does something more interesting than that. It quietly reframes expectations — not because of how the play looks, but because of who’s standing at the centre of it.
This revival of Alan Ayckbourn’s psychological comedy brings Sheridan Smith and Romesh Ranganathan together in a pairing that immediately changes the temperature of the piece. On paper, it’s high-profile casting. In reality, it feels pointed, deliberate, and a little bit risky — in the best way.
Sheridan Smith takes on the role of Susan, a woman whose sense of reality fractures after a seemingly minor accident. Susan’s imagined world becomes warmer, more loving, and more attentive than her real one — and the danger of the play lies in how seductive that escape is. Sheridan is an actor who doesn’t smooth emotional edges or soften discomfort. When she plays psychological unravelling, it tends to happen in full view. That makes her an especially potent choice for a role that demands complete emotional exposure rather than polite restraint.
Then there’s Romesh Ranganathan, making his West End stage debut as Bill.
Audiences arrive with a very fixed idea of who Romesh is — sharp, observational, controlled. Casting him in Woman in Mind isn’t about novelty; it’s about recalibration. Bill is emotionally limited, practical, and often unable to meet Susan where she is. Watching a performer known for humour inhabit a role that depends on emotional absence rather than presence adds an extra layer of tension. Comedy, after all, has always been a useful mask for discomfort.
Together, the casting nudges Woman in Mind away from any lingering sense of cosy Ayckbourn nostalgia. This feels less like gentle psychological comedy and more like something quietly unsettling. A play about identity, isolation, and the mind’s ability to protect itself by rewriting reality.
Directed by Michael Longhurst, the revival leans into that instability rather than explaining it away. With a strong creative team supporting the production, the focus appears to be on contrast — between the ordinary and the imagined, between what is said and what is felt.
The show plays a strictly limited West End run at the Duke of York’s Theatre until 28 February 2026, before touring to Sunderland Empire and Theatre Royal Glasgow. It’s a fittingly fleeting run for a play that exists in such uncertain emotional territory.
Grace’s take?
This doesn’t look like a revival designed to reassure audiences. It looks like one that trusts them to sit with discomfort, question what they’re seeing, and notice when reality starts to slip.
And that’s exactly where Woman in Mind does its most interesting work.
Woman in Mind | Official Box Office | Duke of York’s Theatre
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