Woman In Mind Alan Ayckbourn Pdf Download
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Woman in Mind (December Bee) is the 32nd play by English playwright Alan Ayckbourn. It was premiered at the Stephen Joseph Theatre In The Round, Scarborough, in 1985.[1] Despite pedestrian reviews by many critics, strong audience reaction resulted in a transfer to London's West End.[2] The play received its London opening at the Vaudeville Theatre in 1986 where it received predominantly excellent reviews.[3]
Woman in Mind was the last play written by Ayckbourn before his two-year sabbatical at the Royal National Theatre. Most of it was written while Ayckbourn was on holiday in the Virgin Islands. Influences for the play include the film Dead on Arrival in which the narrator is revealed to be dead at the climax. The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat by Oliver Sacks is also said to be an influence. There are similarities to Ayckbourn's own play, Just Between Ourselves (1976), which follows a woman, Vera, breaking down due to neglect. But unlike Just Between Ourselves, where the audience sees the breakdown from the point of view of those surrounding Vera, in this play, everything is shown from the point of the view of the increasingly deluded Susan.[2][5]
Another theme is Susan's relationship to her son who has joined a cult that forbids communication with parents, in what play critic Michael Billington considered to be an attack on organised religion. In his words, the play is "not only about an emotionally neglected middle-aged woman's descent into madness but also the failure of orthodox Christian morality to cope with individual unhappiness."[2]
Unlike most of Ayckbourn's earlier plays, which were often completed the day before rehearsals began, Woman in Mind was completed a week earlier than he expected. Ayckbourn himself was conscious that this play was radically different from his earlier plays in that the audience is expected to engage with a character whose perceptions are unreliable.[5] His agent was sceptical as to whether an audience would accept such an unconventional play, and as the publicity went out before Ayckbourn had begun writing, an unusual brochure note was issued:[6]
At the time of going to press a high wall of secrecy surrounds this project. Some have the theory that the reason for this is to protect such highly original comic material from the risk of plagiarism. Others, more cynical, suggest that it could be due to the fact that the author hasn't started on it yet and is anxious not to commit himself.
Originally intending to have a male central character, Ayckbourn found that a woman's voice was emerging, and felt that the public would be more sympathetic to a woman, and therefore he changed the sex.[6] Ayckbourn has also commented that he did not want the central character to be a man in case audiences took the play to be autobiographical.[7] Nevertheless, Paul Allen, Ayckbourn's biographer, believes that Woman in Mind is Ayckbourn's most personal play and that a major influence on it may have been a breakdown suffered by his mother in the 1950s.[2][5] He also suggested that Susan's relationship to her son may have been influenced by Alan Ayckbourn's relationship with his son Steven, at the time in a community in California (albeit not a non-speaking cult).[5] This view is not shared by everyone, but it is generally agreed that Woman in Mind is a very personal play to Ayckbourn.
The central character in Woman in Mind is, of course, Susan. She is a housewife who, in reality, is neglected by her husband, patronised by her sister-in-law, and estranged from her son. In her own imaginary world, by contrast, she is happy, successful, and loved by her perfect family. Susan remains on-stage throughout the play, and everything seen and heard on stage is what is seen and heard by Susan, both real and imagined.
At first, the imaginary characters are distinguished from the real characters by their white summery outfits. However, as Susan's mind goes out of control, the real characters start entering Susan's imaginary world, until it is very difficult to tell what is real and what is pretend.
The play set over two acts. The first act can be considered as two scenes, the first scene one afternoon, and the second scene on lunchtime the following day. The second act commences almost immediately where the first act leaves off, and ends some time overnight, but as Susan's perception of reality deteriorates, the passage of time becomes subjective.
The play was originally staged in the round for its original production at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, and adapted for the proscenium for the West End production at the Vaudeville Theatre. It was generally viewed that the play worked better as an end-stage production.[2] However, Alan Ayckbourn later revealed that he felt it was harder to achieve the effect of switching between the two worlds. The problem, he argued, was that whilst the round only makes a scenic statement when one calls upon it to do so, the proscenium makes a scenic statement whether or not it is needed.[8]
After Bill leaves to fetch a cup of tea, Susan's husband (Andy), lovingly tends to her, joined by daughter Lucy and brother Tony, fresh from the tennis courts. All show concern for her welfare and tease her about the rake. Lucy and Tony fetch the ice, and Andy goes to cancel the ambulance Bill has ordered.
When Bill returns, however, it is apparent something is not right. Bill sees a tiny garden, whilst Susan insists her garden is massive, complete with rose-beds, swimming pool, tennis courts and lake. Susan also denies having a sister-in-law or son and becomes more confused when Bill says that her husband has not yet come home. When her real husband (Gerald) and sister-in-law (Muriel) enter, Susan faints.
When Gerald reminds Susan that their son, Rick, is coming for lunch, it transpires that he joined a sect two years ago that forbids members from talking to their parents. He writes, but only to Gerald. Susan, hurt by this, blames this (and Rick's fear of women) on the public school scholarship Gerald bullied him to take. Susan is momentarily distracted by glimpses of Tony and Lucy, before Bill returns to check on Susan, only to be drawn into Gerald's account of the book he's writing on the history of the Parish. Susan therefore takes the opportunity to talk to Lucy, who praises her for her status as a historical novelist, and then informs her (naturally Susan is the first to know) that she is getting married.
When Rick arrives, even Gerald has trouble bringing himself into the house. But before Susan can enter, her imaginary family brings her a sumptuous outdoor banquet and persuades her to dine with them instead. Rick then comes into the garden and, to Susan's surprise, asks her to come inside. As she goes to her son, she collapses again.
In the sunset of her imaginary world, Andy caresses Susan and forgives her for being angry with Lucy. Susan, now worried by the increasing influence that Lucy, Tony and Andy have on her real life, tries to ask Andy to leave her alone. Andy says they will go when she asks but stays when Susan does so, suggesting she didn't really mean it. The scene becomes unreal, with Andy anticipating everything Susan says, then the voices of Susan and her imaginary family coming out of both their mouths.
At an indeterminate time overnight, Gerald and Rick find Susan sprawled out in the middle of the lawn during a thunderstorm. Gerald tries to bring Susan inside, but she mocks him with an offer of a quiet divorce. It appears that Susan has burnt Gerald's precious book of the Parish, something Susan has no memory of. Then Muriel comes out screaming, having read a message of "Knickers off Muriel". She refuses all pleas to come inside, denouncing Gerald for narrow-minded meanness, Rick as a priggish brat, and Muriel for wanting a phantom pregnancy.
Tony appears and opens an umbrella and the storm ends in time for what initially appears to be Lucy's wedding, but Tony and Andy appear to be some sort of race stewards, and Lucy, although dressed as a bride, seems to be taking part in a "brides race". Meanwhile, Bill becomes a clichd bookie, Muriel is a heavily pregnant French maid, Gerald is an archbishop and Susan's real son Rick (now an odd-job man), to her horror, seems to be the groom for her imaginary daughter Lucy. All kinds of snippets relating to her real-life mesh together as a surrealistic nightmare. Ignoring Susan's protests, they all toast her, acclaiming Susan as precious to them all, demanding a speech.
The final shred of reality is when Muriel says "The ambulance is on its way", and a blue light flashes. Susan's speech descends into the same gibberish Bill used at the beginning of the play, and, with a desperate request to "December bee", she collapses a final time.
In 1986, Woman in Mind transferred to London's West End at the Vaudeville Theatre and received its premiere on 3 September 1986, closing on 4 July 1987.[1] Again directed by Ayckbourn and with design by Roger Glossop, the cast originally consisted of:
Woman in Mind received its American premiere in New York on 17 February 1988 at the Manhattan Theatre Club. The production was directed by Lynne Meadow and the cast included Stockard Channing in the role of Susan.[9]
In 2008, the play was revived at the Stephen Joseph Theatre, again directed by Alan Ayckbourn. It had been intended for several years to revive this play with the lead role performed by Janie Dee, with whom Alan Ayckbourn had worked on various occasions since 1992.[5] The production was originally scheduled for the autumn 2006 season. However, on 21 February 2006, Alan Ayckbourn suffered a stroke and the production of Woman in Mind was eventually dropped.[10][11] The play was eventually rescheduled for the autumn 2008 season, as part of Ayckbourn's final season as artistic director.[2][12]
After a successful month-long run,[2] it was announced that the play would transfer to the West End, again at the Vaudeville Theatre.[13] It was the first play to be directed by Alan Ayckbourn in the West End since Damsels in Distress (whose treatment by the West End had led to Alan Ayckbourn's threat of a "boycott"). Janie Dee reprised her role, as did most of the Scarborough cast, and the play was produced by Bill Kenwright who had revived Absurd Person Singular in 2007. It had a premiere on 6 February 2009, with a full run from 29 January to 2 May.[1]
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