Stage: Woman in Mind

Daydream believer: Dark, intense Woman in Mind is a real head trip

By Jessica Kruse

Walking out of the theatre on Friday night, I was reminded of a multitude of cartoons I saw during my childhood. The ones where an angel and a devil would appear on the shoulders of some character to try to persuade him to make either a good or a bad decision. And the entire time, the character is stuck somewhere in the middle, kind of wanting to try both options. Sound familiar?

Las Vegas Little Theatre's production of Woman in Mind leaves you with a similar sensation. On one half of the stage is the wonderfully angelic family, complete with a doting husband, an adoring daughter, a loyal brother and lots of money. On the other side of the stage is a much poorer family, with a boring, unkind husband, a judgmental sister-in-law and a son who hasn't spoken in years. And then there's Susan (Barbara King), a lonely housewife caught in the middle of the good and the bad. The catch: The good family is all in her mind and the boring family is her reality.

After Susan suffers from a concussion, she has a series of hallucinations involving a dream family. She desperately wants to stay in this dream world, but her real family keeps making demands on her time and her heart. Even with these interruptions, Susan becomes so involved with the imaginary family that the characters begin to enter her reality, causing some uncomfortable incidents with the real family. Only then does Susan question her sanity and that of her dream family.

Just as Susan's role as mother binds together her dream family, it is King's wonderfully emotional performance which holds the entire production together. Other noteworthy performers include Felicity Belle Salmon, as the uptight, disapproving sister-in-law, Muriel, and Rob Turney's portrayal of Bill, the bumbling, fumbling doctor.

Be warned: This dark comedy by Alan Ayckbourn (think a British Neil Simon) is pretty intense. Luckily there are plenty of comic moments throughout to keep the mood tolerable. The play is too long, though, and I would have been content with a cut-down version. Two and a half hours of something this heavy had me squirming--and had the couple in front of me nodding off in their seats.