Sheila's Island

This performance on the opening night promised to be an interesting one, written by the much-acclaimed Tim Firth of Calendar Girls fame; and Dominic Holmes making his debut as a director. The set was excellently simple, yet effective, as it really captured the scene of a barren location perfectly, and with fog drifting onto the stage from Lake Derwent, the opening scene was atmospheric.

Awe and wonder continued in these early moments of the play as a group of women, (Sheila, Denise, Julie and Fay), arrived on stage, one by one, soaked through after their boat sank.

This was an all-female cast; their characters on a team building weekend. The group leader, Sheila, had over complicated the reading of the instructions and so the team was led astray, soon lost, wet, and stranded in the middle of a foggy Derwent water. With just three rescued rucksacks, a waterlogged mobile phone, and a single sausage,( saved from breakfast, and their only source of food, the women had to work out how to get off the island, get passed killer pikes and party boats, and reach the safety of the hotel bar. Whilst the exercise was intended to enhance cooperation and mutual respect between these colleagues, being stranded and attempting to survive and navigate how to get off the island, led to recriminations, harsh words being said, much bickering with questions asked, truths told and squabbles erupting.

Director, Dominic Holmes, did a first-class job of steering the cast through a lot of dialogue; his direction endeared the characters to us as much as possible, making them convincing and the situation real wherever possible. The actors were confident with their lines and well-rehearsed, and this was a challenging script, a play of considerable length. Dominic kept his cast busy, even when there were constraints of space, (for example when changing into dry clothes) with exchanges between team members kept lively that flowed quite naturally. Whilst the comedy was overall underwhelming, the play was funny at times, attributed to this team of performers’ instinctive timing and expressions.

The construction of the set was impressive with a large tree trunk shaped as a set piece on one side of the stage, with much foliage. The backcloth being the vast grey lake. Dominic Holmes designed the set, and it was constructed by a sizeable team of builders, creating a rich ‘natural,’ background, worthy of any professional performance, depicting an isolated island surrounded by trees. Sound  and lighting effects provided perfect accompaniment and enhanced the play so effectively.

This was an excellent cast who gelled together well in this production.

Denise Bowen-Walters played with charm the inept and sensible Sheila and was the first to crawl onto the scene arriving on the island from the water. When others arrived, once they were accustomed to the territory she tried to keep spirits up by being jolly and upbeat (organising a game of French cricket) trying to keep the peace, though the unseen emotional baggage the other women had brought with them threatened any hope of team spirit. The role of Fay was played by Christina Peak. She conveyed well the fragility and vulnerability in her characterisation. She was a slightly confused individual, who it transpired had a history of mental illness; and who was now religious, which helped her cope with unpleasantness; and who also retreated to bird watching to avoid confrontation. Claire Parker took the part of acid tongued Denise with perfect sarcastic tones, and she became seemingly unhinged as the play progressed. She was aggressive from the onset in her character and intolerant of the other team members. Claire adopted a cruel, unkind persona using an assertive swagger in her bodily stance towards the others. She mocked Fay for being,’ doolally,’ and was deliberately hurtful to Julie. She was very convincing in her bullying role. Rachel Holmes played superbly the very resourceful, Julie, the ready prepared character with a bottomless rucksack full of everything she thought useful and who tried to be helpful and friendly. When she incurred the irritation of Denise, her character was visibly bruised by Denise’s remarks. Julie had a mobile and called her husband Angus, who she claimed never usually went out. Virtually using all her battery power to leave a lengthy message for him, regarding their predicament and what to do about it, she explained his lack of response was because he had nipped out to do shopping at Aldi.  Denise mocked Julie for this, and the character of Julie became disturbed, showing insecurity. Rachel’s facial expressions were pitch perfect  and especially present in some of the play’s funny moments including when the sole sausage to be shared, flew off her plate; and the audience roared at the unexpected tools which emerged with surprise from her rucksack, not forgetting  when the lighting of fireworks took place to no avail… all depended on swift action and Rachel’s great sense of timing.

This was a relatable tale of a company’s team building exercise for female, middle aged, middle managers gone terribly wrong. It had a strong cast (and crew) and a superb set. The play was punctuated with comically catastrophic moments, and although I felt the script overlong, I congratulate Dominic and the cast of performers on their achievements.

Well, done all!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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