Writer: Tim Firth
Director: Colin Connor
Tim Firth’s play, having previously been enacted on film and the mainstream stage, now moves to the fringe in gender-swapped form – Neville’s Island becoming Sheila’s Island.
Not content with staging the play in the round director Colin Connor moves towards an immersive atmosphere so successfully there is concern water might start lapping around one’s ankles. The audience enters to a stage covered in rough matting and scattered wood chips with dry ice hovering like a thick fog. The cast, being troupers, first appear in dripping wet clothes their characters having just abandoned a sinking boat.
During an outward-bound team-building weekend, Sheila (Emma Laidlaw) disastrously misinterprets the clues on a treasure hunt and instead of guiding her workmates to the intended pub strands them on an inhospitable island. With Denise’s (Jenny Jordan-O’Neill) relentless criticism turning into bullying, Julie (Lisa Connor -whose commute to the theatre is made easier by her being manager of the venue) fretting about her husband’s possible infidelity and Fay’s (Fiona Boylan) mental health declining a challenging experience becomes increasingly frightening.
Sheila’s Island is an uneven play; much of the first act is spent setting up developments in the second. The comedy is laboured with the pay-off of jokes telegraphed so far in advance the humour is wasted. Emma Laidlaw has an excellent opening speech establishing Sheila’s character as an over-achiever who over-thinks and always looks for the most complex solution but evolves into a more traditional mother or caring leader figure who is less comedic.
The character of Denise is under-utilised. There is opportunity for an amusingly morose Jaques type character, whose common sense allows her to point out the grim reality of situations, or someone whose lack of self-worth entitles her to belittle other people. However, Denise is treated as a plot device – a means of pushing the other characters towards their emotional limits- so Jenny Jordan-O’Neill is restricted to playing the character as not so much wearily passive-aggressive as bullyingly aggressive-aggressive.
Fiona Boylan plays Fay as a damaged innocent. Past trauma has pushed Fay into seeking solace in a spiritual outlook so she is capable of delighting in the rare bird-life on the island whilst also guilelessly undermining Sheila by pointing out her mistakes. Fiona Boylan and Emma Laidlaw share the most emotionally-charged scene with Sheila achieving a degree of redemption by helping Fay come to terms with her misplaced guilt.
Lisa Connor channels Julie’s insecurity into an over-aspirational lifestyle making her easy prey for salespeople selling unnecessary expensive goods. But there is also a degree of snobbishness as Julie is mortified by the possibility her husband is not only being unfaithful but with an employee of the budget supermarket Aldi.
Strangely, although set as a team-building exercise, little of the humour is linked to the workplace apart from repeated reminders to be sensitive about Fay’s mental health. The situation is close to absurd, with characters stuck on an island traversed by pleasure ferries but unable to attract attention, so director Colin Connor treats parts of the play as a comedy of embarrassment. An effort to attract rescuers by waving sparklers is underplayed, with the characters humiliatingly aware their actions are pathetically inadequate.
The second act is more engaging with the characters confronting the resentments which have been building and an edgy sense of actual danger developing as one of them may be succumbing to her demons.
All involved with Sheila’s Island work hard to make the transfer of a mainstream play to the fringe a success but there is a sense they are working with material that is not very strong.
Until 21st February 2026
Reviewer: David Cunningham
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