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 overnight.

Sheila (Pam Stringer) is the appointed leader of this team-building group and is obviously intelligent and a well-informed person but with not too many practical day-to-day skills. She is hampered mainly by Denise (Aimee Bullimore), a bigoted, loud, outspoken person without too much regard for others’ feelings and always ready to give her opinion on any given matter. Julie (Lia Roper) was the most level-headed member of the team having brought with her everything except the provisional kitchen sink - even to the point of cooking and eating equipment with utensils and an emergency flare. Fay (Grace Brandon) was the quieter and shy one, always anxious to please and seeing the good in absolutely everything. Her Christian beliefs were just the target for Denise’s barbed jibes throughout the whole experience.

These four ladies were the only characters in this play and had much complicated dialogue and many emotions to impart to us, the audience. They were all well cast and held their personae throughout. Their interactions through the various scenes of hope, despair, exhaustion and relief were well enacted. There are many props in this play and these were skilfully and expertly expedited with a natural and confident ease. Props can often cause an actor’s downfall, but the eclectic mix of items in this production all behaved themselves very well!   

The scenery on stage was built and painted as an island shore with an extension for a look-out post. Well done to the set painters and builders (not credited on the programme) for an authentic-looking and busy set. The lighting was comparatively simple with mainly changes between each scene as the day became later and the light fading and again the following morning as dawn broke.  The sound was rather more complicated with a lot of important sound cues  that needed precise timing - all in sync with the dialogue.

Congratulations to director, Frances Mansell and her efficient team for giving us an enjoyable piece of theatre, which considering some of the content including the inclusion of bigotry, mental health issues and even some scenes with cast coated in blood, had a good amount of humour and was an entertaining and cleverly written play for an appreciative, responsive audience..

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