Sheila's Island

There was a time in the 1990's when companies decided to send their staff on weekends away for 'team building' sessions - but that often meant that the bosses plan was to see how far their workers would go to keep their jobs!  This comedy was written by the brilliant Tim Firth, who brought all this together so cleverly. It was further enhanced by LYM Productions in a very intimate space at the Studio in the Carriageworks, with panache and style. The premise of this play involved four middle-aged and middle management women who were attending a weekend team exercise in the Lake District. The writer had previously explored this idea with the all-male play, 'Neville's Island' and now reimagined it for an all - female cast.

The exercise all goes horribly wrong and the team end up on a small island in the middle of the lake, after their boat has hit a rock and sunk - the chortles from the audience began almost at once as the four women emerge dripping wet from the lake. To put across this level of performance needs top acting skills and these four actresses were at the pinnacle of their game. Jo Sykes, as 'Captain' of the group, was so believable as Sheila - a wrong decision on map reading had cast the women far away from the main action. The inimitable Jane Collins played Denise perfectly - with sarcastic wit and plenty of fabulous one-liners. She put over her frustration at being in a totally alien environment to what she was used to - and blaming everyone else for the situation. Marie Isbister played Julie so well - she was the 'just in case' type - her rucksack, bulging with everything to cover any difficult situations - hilarious!  Last, but by no means least, Janine Walker played Fay with vision and expression - a devoted Christian  and bird watcher, she is dreamy and appeared the least able of the group - but  that all changes at the end of the play.

In a performance with only four actors, there were so many 'stand-out' situations - one was that Denise discovers that Julie has concealed a sausage from the hotel breakfast buffet in 'the rucksack' - there follows a hilarious scene where a camping stove (courtesy of Julie!) is produced and the sausage heated up - but how to divide it in into four? Julie produces an 18" knife for the job - I cannot begin to describe the audiences reaction to this and similar scenes as the four women get colder, wetter and more hungry as the night goes on - all this was so well directed by Carolyn Craven, who managed to fit so much action into such a small studio space - but she had given her cast the confidence to play so closely to the audience - she has my complete admiration. The set was very simple and stylised for the studio space - trees, tree trunks and forest debris etc., made it so believable - and I was privy to be shown how the women emerged from the lake so wet - a paddling pool back stage and a trough to 'lie' in prior to their first entrance - so well thought through.

The backstage team, Producer, Bryan Craven; Stage Manager and Sound, Paul Harding; Lighting, Tina Nutt were all of the highest standard. Gilly Carr was responsible for Props; this was a great challenge of a job for this play - rucksacks full of spare clothing and props, Julie's especially! - but all so very well done! 

This was indeed an amazing evening's entertainment - it would have transferred to a professional stage in a flash - I have every confidence that this group will go on to produce even more excellent productions. I must just mention that at the end of the play, the women are rescued by helicopter - if they had been on the island longer, it might have resembled a blood bath!  There were darker moments, but it is the comedy that stays in the memory - and the aroma of that cooking sausage!

My sincere congratulations to you all for a most memorable theatre visit!

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