Romesh Ranganathan and Sheridan Smith in A Woman in Mind [Marc Brenner]

ALAN Ayckbourn’s 1985 tragicomedy follows Susan (Sheridan Smith), a middle-aged woman whose life unravels after she bumps her head tripping over a garden rake. She’s tended to by clumsy doctor Bill (comedian Romesh Ranganathan), who calls an ambulance and insists on staying with her.

For Susan, reality splits into two parallel worlds. She imagines an entirely different existence: an idyllic home, far larger than her real one, complete with lake and tennis court.

Her fantasy family includes an adoring husband Andy (Sule Rimi) who cooks her lavish dinners, and a loving daughter Lucy (Safia Oakley-Green) who plays tennis with Susan’s fun, supportive brother Tony (Chris Jenks). They appear to live in perfect harmony, drinking endless champagne together.

The reality is very different. When we meet Susan’s family, we understand her desperation to escape a suffocating home life: a dull marriage to her vicar husband Gerald (Tim McMullan), an insufferable sister-in-law Muriel (Louise Brealey) who doesn’t know the difference between ground and instant coffee, and strained relations with her son Rick (Taylor Uttley), apparently living with a non-speaking cult in Hemel Hempstead.

Despite the contemporary relevance of its central theme – the retreat into mental escape – Ayckbourn’s play feels dated, with recurring (and static) scenes in a garden.

Lee Curran’s lighting and Paul Arditti’s sound heighten the hallucinatory mood, but too often it feels like we’re watching a sitcom in Michael Longhurst’s production.

The extended opening is played in front of a safety curtain, presumably to delay the reveal of the overgrown long grass (courtesy of Soutra Gilmour) that forms Susan’s fantasy landscape.

The cast work hard, yet the characters are thinly drawn, making it difficult to care about any of them.

Until February 28
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