Woman in Mind by Alan AykbournShakespeare's excellent for lines and plots, but for comedy, women's roles and sheer theatricality I think you can't beat Alan Aykbourn.
'The trivial round, the common task,
Should furnish all we ought to ask'
So middle-aged Susan's vicar husband reminds her, in their suburban garden. So why does Susan hallucinate about an ideal family whose members drop by to console, advise and protect her? Is it caused by a blow to the head after stepping on the garden rake? Is she suffering from a combination of empty-nest syndrome and sexual deprivation? Can her husband really have been working on a history of the parish since 1387?
Her sister-in-law's disastrous cooking doesn't help, of course.
Janie Dee is superb and the support acting is good in this darkly funny play by Alan Aykbourn, directed by the playwright himself.
A Guardian Review:
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