Review by Paul Towers, 11/11/24
Sheila’s Island by Tim Firth
Directed by Jane Towers
Produced by Leicester Drama Society (LDS)
At The Little Theatre until Saturday 16th
November
We have all heard of the shenanigans that go
on when a group of lads embark on a weekend away. But what about if a group of
girls enrol on a team-building excursion?
Tim Firth (Calendar Girls) has given us a
funny, poignant story of four ladies who are stuck on a fog bound island in the
Lake District. Supposedly on a team-building outward-bound weekend it soon
descends into Lord-Of-The-Flies country as the various cracks appear in the
group dynamic.
Sheila (Alfi Levy) is supposed to be the team
leader but is pretty ineffectual, relying, as she does, on her cryptic
crossword skills to overthink the group’s instructions. Julie (Kat Seddon) has
the largest rucksack filled, Mary Poppins-like, with an array of essential survival
supplies (or so the man in the shop assured her). Denise (Mary Delahunty) is
the group pessimist. In her eyes everything that can go wrong will go wrong
and, to be fair, with Sheila in charge, it has. Fay (Kathryn Lenthall) is
struggling with her mental health and some of the group worry she may do
something stupid. Her way of coping is to embrace her new found love of God.
As the play opens the four women drag
themselves, wet and weary, out of the sea and dry off. Immediately tensions
start to show as Sheila is rightly blamed for their being lost and fog bound.
From then on it is a case of trying get by with the meagre supplies they have
rescued from the lake.
The set by Steph Nicholls expertly depicts
the water’s edge and trees.
Sheila’s Island is at The Little Theatre
until Saturday 16th November
Pics: Jenny Harding
https://thelittletheatre.co.uk/
https://ptheatre.blogspot.com/
