Woman in Mind

Woman in Mind

By Alan Ayckbourn

Directed by David M. Jenkins

Jun. 7 – 24, 2007

Thu. – Sat. 8pm, Sun. 4pm

Tickets: $19.50 – $24.50

Shimberg Playhouse, Straz Center for the Performing Arts

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Distinctions

Creative Loafing Best of the Bay

Jobsite Jobby

What It's About

Sir Alan Ayckbourn (Norman Conquests, Absurd Person Singular, Absent Friends), one of the most popular and prolific playwrights in the world, goes deeper and darker in this play about a bored housewife named Susan who is married to a stodgy vicar.

After regaining consciousness from a comical accident, Susan experiences a series of hallucinations in which her tedious, loveless and oppressive everyday life is replaced by a fantasy world where she is the ideal wife and mother of an ideal family. The two halves of her life eventually collide with hilarity and heartbreak.

Woman in Mind opens in a traditional English garden where Susan (Ami Sallee Corley) wakes up after she stepped on the tooth end of a garden rake and knocked herself out. She is tended to by the bumbling-yet-sweet local GP Bill Windsor (Shawn Paonessa ) whose words slowly turn from complete gibberish to clear English as she regains consciousness and her composure.

The opening scene, like the play that follows it, is both wonderfully comic and deeply unsettling. Following her initial recovery, Susan lapses and begins to hallucinate. Her real world – inhabited by nebbish husband (Jason Evans), eccentric sister-in-law (Kari Goetz) and distant son (Stephen Ray ) – is replaced with a world populated by a loving husband (Steve Garland), perfect daughter (Caitlin Eason) and dapper brother (Matt Lunsford).

Her simple English garden morphs into a vast estate, where poorly-made coffee is replaced with flutes of Dom Perignon. In all aspects of the production the boundary between the real and the ideal world is blurred and broken until the entire experience is simultaneously surreal and harrowing.

The Ensemble of Jobsite's Woman in Mind.

We laugh ourselves though [the] characters and the experience is at once painful and exhilarating. – Sunday Express, London

Critic Reviews

From the moment the lights come up ... Ami Sallee Corley commands every viewer's undivided attention ... Woman in Mind is a smart, well-acted show full of energy. Who knew the descent into madness could be so exhilarating? – Tampa Tribune

There are several reasons why you should see Woman in Mind, but perhaps the best of them is actress Ami Sallee Corley's virtuoso performance ... everybody contributes to the laugh-out-loud comedy.... In fact, some of the scenes between Susan, Gerald and Muriel are as funny as anything I've seen on stage in months. – Creative Loafing

Ami Sallee Corley, in the lead role of Susan, performs what I really believe is the most powerful theatrical role I've witnessed since moving to Florida. – Sticks of Fire

News

Cast & Crew

  • David M. Jenkins – Director
  • Erica Porch – Production Stage Manager

Cast

  • Ami Sallee Corley – Susan
  • Jason Evans – Gerald
  • Steve Garland – Andy
  • Kari Goetz – Muriel
  • Matt Lunsford – Tony
  • Caitlin Eason – Lucy
  • Shawn Paonessa – Bill
  • Stephen Ray – Rick

Crew

  • Jaime Giangrande-Holcom – Rehearsal Stage Manager
  • Xylina Golding – Rehearsal Stage Manager
  • David M. Jenkins – Set & Sound Design
  • John Lott – Light Design
  • Matt Lunsford – Master Carpenter/Dialect Coach
  • Katrina Stevenson – Costume Design
  • Brian M. Smallheer – Technical Director

Patron Reviews

Thank you so much … We thoroughly enjoyed the show. Congratulations on your success. – Deborah Kobritz

Awesome show last night! Congratulations on an excellent production. … Please pass on to the cast I think they committed extraordinary acts of theatre magic last night. Truly exceptional work from EVERYONE. I was trying to think of a word to describe my reaction to the production and what comes to mind is: charmed. I was sincerely charmed by the talent and quality of work, and charmed by my own complete submersion into the world of the play, in great part I think to the wonderful commitment of the cast. You kids is hypnotic! I totally, totally dig it, man. Thank you for a great night of theatre. – Leah LoSchiavo

I was absolutely blown away by your performance on Saturday night! … I am also in awe of Jobsite Theatre, and it’s ability to mount such a complex production with so few financial resources! The play was as wonderful as anything I have seen on Broadway! – Carolyn Sachs

I was so honored to see it. I just really felt it, every bit of it, and felt privileged to be among those in the audience. – Susan Hussey

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