The Hinman Production Company will be performing “Woman in Mind” from Nov. 6 to Nov. 8 at 8 p.m., with an additional Saturday showing at 2 p.m. in the Hinman Commons.

Written by Alan Ayckbourn, “Woman in Mind” follows the story of the unhappy protagonist Susan after she suffers a concussion from being hit with a garden rake and begins to hallucinate an ideal family and identity.

The play alternates between the fictitious family that Susan begins to hallucinate and her dull reality, in which she is trapped in a loveless marriage and struggles in her family dynamic. Her real husband and home life are marked by strife, whereas her dream family’s life is filled with laughter and joy. These abrupt transitions create strong yet confusing parallels, leaving the viewer wondering who Susan and her family truly are.

“It’s about how she’s been cast into this specific role and she’s been living this life for so long that she just isn’t satisfied with it,” Karis Mueller, the play’s director and a senior double-majoring in English and philosophy, politics and law, said. “And this imaginary family that she is initially satisfied with, there’s also problems with that, so she’ll never be able to escape.”

Zoe Steinberg, the president of HPC and a senior majoring in English, reflected on Susan’s character, who she plays in the show.

“Susan is unhappy and takes it out on everyone around her, but there is a reason she does it,” Steinberg said. “It’s to isolate, to hurt herself. She thinks that if she isolates enough that it won’t matter anymore.”

As an entirely student-run organization, HPC functions as a comprehensive creative unit — casting and directing their own shows while cultivating the theater community on campus. The welcoming and collaborative nature of HPC enables students to come together and foster connections with one another.

Ian Moszynski, HPC’s events coordinator and a senior double-majoring in English and cinema, said that this collaboration allows for more input from both cast and crew into the decisions made.

Moszynski also discussed his experience playing Dr. Bill Windsor, Susan’s physician and one of the few characters outside of her imagination. The rest of the ensemble gets lost in Susan’s reality, perfectly blending the lines between horror and comedy to create a haunting yet memorable final image around her delusions.

“It all centers around Susan, so it’s been different in other productions, playing a character that’s more separate, whereas in this I feel like my character is very much filtered through her perception,” Moszynski said. “So, I’ve been trying to base my performance, very much so, on [Steinberg’s].”

The separation from her real family and her hallucinations show Susan slowly beginning to lose her grasp on her own sanity. “Woman in Mind” blurs the lines between love, hate, identity and reminds the viewer of what truly matters — family.

“What [Susan] longs for clearly, by hallucinating this other family, is connection, and she doesn’t go out to grab it herself in her real life,” Steinberg said. “And that’s why all these things happen. So I think possibly then a takeaway would just be to hold on to the people around you.”