Night patrol with machete and . . . spatula (?)
Kate Pilling, left, as Fay, Emma Woodcock as Julie, Pippa Olliver as
Denise and Sharon Clayton as Sheila. Pictures: Emily White
Sheila's Island
Highbury Theatre Centre
****
So, welcome to the Lake District where we
join Team C from Salford’s Pennine Mineral Water Ltd on the company’s
annual fun treasure hunt style management team building exercise, all a
bit of fun, bit of bonding, bit of problem solving, all grist to the
mill in the heady world of water management.
Sheila, for reasons unknown, has been elected
captain of this band of the water company high(ish) flyers as they take
on the corporate challenge. She is a dab hand at cryptic crosswords and
had deciphered the first clue before the rival teams A and B had even
finished reading it. If only the clue had actually been cryptic . . .
Then there is Julie from health and safety who is
a poster girl for naïve and, after a visit to an outdoor pursuits shop
for supplies for her trip to the Lakes, now has enough equipment and
gadgets to mount an expedition up Everest.
Julie might be in a world of her own but Denise
has her feet firmly on the ground. She is a grumpy non-menopausal woman
(she is very insistent about that) whose heart is more into spas,
boutique hotels and home comforts than trekking around the Lakes like
rejects from Countryfile.
Finally we have Fay whose feet are firmly . . .
well nowhere near the ground. She is just back from a mental breakdown,
has found God, is into birdwatching, and is living in a parallel
universe. Oh, and by the way, don’t mention Lucy!
So there you have it. A disparate bunch who
arrive, follow a few clues, attend the Sunday night dinner and are back
at work, refreshed, reinvigorated, raring to go on Monday morning . . .
or at least that was the plan.
Whether commandeering a rowing boat to head to
the astronomical layout of islands on Derwent water was the actual
answer to the first clue is open to interpretation, but there is no
doubt crashing into rocks and sinking the boat was not part of the
exercise, nor was then being stranded on an island for the rest of the
weekend.
If Denise was grumpy about being on the weekend
in the first place she is positively livid about having to swim ashore
with her new, expensive rucksack now sitting somewhere on the lake bed –
the only rucksack of the four lost by the way, which really does go down
well with her.
Denise, Julie, Sheila and Fay in ta brief
moment of bonding
Pippa Olliver drips ashore in a mood which
darkens with every stranded hour, spraying everyone with somewhat
unkind, sometimes cruel and often very funny jibes and one liners as she
vents her frustrations to all and sundry, frustrations which you suspect
are not limited to the island but encompass her entire life. Her
constant mockery slowly becomes corrosive and eventually destructive.
Sharon Clayton gives us a calming if less than
competent Sheila who can justify how they got to the island, and as
captain is determined to keep spirits up and boost morale, she takes
this leadership role seriously, and she is inventive . . . nothing like
a Tupperware side plate stuck on a branch with a toasting fork to
attract attention to passers by 200 yards away . . . in fog.
Not that Emma Woodcock’s Julie’s spirits need
lifting, she is more . . . well, life happens around her and she has no
idea how to avoid it. Everything is literal, in its place and she fusses
over irrelevant detail in a life of what appears to be constant wonder.
She is carrying more supplies than a team of Sherpas, and is, should we
say, not the brightest star in the firmament. She has the one emergency
phone allowed, now water damaged, with one call left, so calls her
husband, who she says is always there, so she leaves a message, because
he is out, asking him to initiate a rescue.
When no rescue arrives cruel jibes from Denise
bring Julie’s life crashing down in a tangle of imagined bodies locked
in naked lust and infidelity in the Aldi bread aisle . . . don’t ask,
Julie’s mind and thought processes are a law unto themselves.
Kate Pilling gives us an outwardly fairly normal(ish)
Fay, giving her a sort of slightly other worldly air. She provides her
with that religious fervour under the surface and takes her duties as a
lookout more as an exercise in birdwatching, finding ecstasy when she
spots a Gyrfalcon.
The problem is that Fay is only just back after a
mental breakdown and stranded on an island with no food, a rampant
Denise mocking and attacking everyone and anyone around, a naïve Julie
worried her husband is playing away among the bloomers at Aldi and a
let’s play rounders to pass the time Sheila, is not what one could
describe as continued therapy.
Something had to give and we head into a Lord of
the Flies moment with a semi naked Fay on a ledge with a two foot
machete and a noose made from 480lb breaking strain climbing rope. She
could be about to kill everyone, or hang herself or, as it turns out,
appear in her underwear doing an impromptu impression of The Ancient
Mariner.
Sheila showing the sort of ingenuity that
stranded them on the island in the first place explaining the concept of
her Tupperware rescue flag to Julie
Sheila’s island is the equal
opportunities version of Tim Firth’s earlier sojourn into the world of
corporate team building, Neville’s Island, Much the same plot
and with much the same failings with this time a team of women rather
than men but get beyond the stretching of credulity and we have four
very different and well defined characters.
There is a leader trying desperately hard but
without the command that would come if she had the necessary leadership
qualities, despite that failing she is doing her best. Then we have a
woman at odds with the world to a point you both dislike her and
empathise with her anger and dissatisfaction with her lot. You suspect a
whole life of hopes and dreams have faded and passed her by.
We have a girl who had a perfect, happy,
uncomplicated relationship, a simple life, everything in its place, a
place for everything, lovey dovey, husband she adored and . . .all
shattered by the attacks from Denise’s bitter hand grenades.
Then there is the doolally one, the God squad
nutter, except there is a sadness about her, the laughs we spend on the
rest and their antics, do not sit easily on her. She is not to be
laughed at or even pitied, she just elicits compassion especially when
she opens up a little about the sorrow in her past.
It was Jean-Paul Sartre who told us hell is other
people and Sheila’s miscalculation has resulted in a comedy with a dark
centre about relationships and friendships that make and break when
people are stranded in isolation.
There are laughs, plenty of them, and tension at
times, some from the stranded team members some from the situation the
quartet find themselves in, even a fear of a bloodthirsty, murderous
islander out to kill them in the darkness – bit of a stretch perhaps,
but there you go. A sausage, a soggy slice of pizza, a disco cruise
passing in the night, rubbing two sticks for fire . . . you cant say
being marooned wasn't eventful. We even have fog rolling across Malcom
Robertshaw's excellent island set.
As for the quartet - they do a fine job in
creating and developing their characters from their drowned rat arrival
to people we had started to know and understand as rescue finally
approaches. Where they go from here, management speaking, who knows, but
it all makes for an entertaining evening – with something to think about
on the way home – just be careful of the rocks in the dark. Directed by
Phil Astle, Sheila will be trying to get off her island to 26-10-24.
Roger Clarke
16-10-24
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