Nearly two seasons ago the fledgling Ovation Theatre Company had mixed results with dark comedy in The House of Yes. The laughs were there, but the soul was missing. Now with two years of experience and better material, they have impressively captured both the quirky humor and the painful darkness of famed British playwright Alan Ayckbourn's Woman in Mind.

        Woman in Mind centers on Susan (Carolmarie Stock) who wakes up in her English garden one day after having hit her head on a rake. She soon finds traipsing through her garden both her cold “real” family and the perky fantasy family she has imagined. To escape reality, she moves further into her pseudo life until problems arise there and the worlds blend together.

        Mr. Ayckbourn offers up his musings on the conflict and confluence of life as we find it and life as we'd like it to be. Director Lisa Hall Breithaupt has a firm grasp of the play and never forces the humor. Instead, she wisely focuses her actors on Mr. Ayckbourn's more serious intentions.

        Ms. Stock firmly anchors the production as conflicted Susan. As the people from both her lives spin around her, she projects the bitterness and fear of a woman confused and alone with the people she's supposed to love.

        A quibble is that Ms. Stock misses some opportunities to inject isolated moments of warmth into Susan that would have given more feeling to her tragic spiral. Still, her performance is strong and believable and hits the mark in many ways.

        The rest of the cast is solid throughout. David Hughes is likeably goofy as the neighborhood doctor. Dennis Murphy and Rob Jansen are Susan's ineffectual husband and estranged son respectively, while Mindy Seibert is wonderfully frumpy as Susan's excitable sister-in-law.

        The fantasy family of gentrified hubby Mike Ward, perfect daughter Emily Blocher, and English huntsman brother Jon Vater are particularly amusing as the surreal action picks up in the second act.

        The lighting design by Eric Bardes is the best I have ever seen in the Aronoff's Fifth Third Bank Theater. He does wonders with limited instruments to create a warm fantasy world and a harsh reality for Susan.

        Kudos also to a committee of Ovation costumers and the Cincinnati Costume Co. for the colorful fantasy world wear.

        Woman in Mind, through Saturday, Ovation Theatre Company, Aronoff Center, (513) 241-7469.

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