Sheila's Island

“Sheila’s Island” is a play by Tim Firth (of Kinky Boots and Calendar Girls fame). Sheila, Denise, Fay and Julie  are on a team building exercise weekend in competition with other groups and Sheila - their appointed leader - totally ruins any chance of their winning by getting the first clue to their tasks completely wrong.  So the scenario is one of four wet girls on an island in the Lake District area with little chance of contacting anyone and trying to fend for themselves for food and shelter.

The opening was impressive with imposing island scenery on stage, in front of which were large rocks through which the girls arrived, their boat having capsized. The rest of the time spent in this place was getting to know more about each other, apportioning blame for the problems and trying to deal with Fay’s mental breakdown especially when she is being made fun of because of her Christian beliefs. Also Denise did not help the situation with her inappropriate and bigoted jokes throughout the experience. The four girls were cast well in their parts. There was much dialogue and they were able to interact with one another perfectly naturally including whilst changing clothing and handling lots of props. Three people were in charge of many props - well done.

Sheila (Claire Carpenter) excellently played the leader and tried to keep some semblance of order despite opposition from Denise (Lex Lake) with her barbed observations about all and sundry. She was able to extract every bit of comedy from the script with her spot-on timing. Julie  (Kelly Verstappen) was the most level-headed member of the team, having brought with her everything except the proverbial kitchen sink - even to the point of an emergency flare and a variety of plates and utensils. She, like Denise wanted to know more than they needed to know about the mental illness of Fay (Alison Kemish).

With only four people on stage for two hours, sometimes the action of a play can be rather staid, but this was certainly not the order of the day in this performance.  Director, Sarah Papouis and Assistant Director, Howard  Abbott had the group of four moving around with animation for the majority of the time and our interest in the continuing plot was kept fresh throughout. The technical side of the production was executed with precision - many sound effects and scene changes. I was also struck by the innovative program which was in the form of an Ordinance Survey map of the Lake District with all the cast, production team, crew and society accreditations contained therein.

Congratulations to all involved with this production. A very enjoyable and worthwhile time was had by all.                       

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