SISTERS are doing it for themselves at Salisbury Playhouse this week in Tim Firth's rewritten comedy Sheila's Island – an entertaining and funny play with a serious undertone.
A team-building trip to the Lake District turns into a crisis as four female colleagues become marooned on an island in the middle of Derwent Water. With no food, no shelter and a mobile phone with a dead battery, spirits wither, emotions are high and (dare I say it) hormones take over.
Sheila, played by Judy Flynn, is an unlikely team leader - her cryptic crossword solving skills have landed the group in trouble and she feels responsible for keeping spirits up. With renditions of Kumbaya and a game of French cricket using a stick and a fir cone, Sheila emerges as the only level-headed and truly happy member of the group.
Abigail Thaw plays Denise, whose sharp wit keeps us chuckling throughout the performance, even when the quips take a more cruel and prejudice turn against her mentally-fragile, Christian colleague Fay, played by Sara Crowe.
Rina Fatania also makes us laugh out loud as the younger, more naive of the four, with a Tardis-like rucksack, filled by her elusive husband with everything you could possibly need when stranded on an island - apart from food!
The four talented actresses all portrayed their different characters very convincingly.
Director Joanna Read keeps momentum going throughout the play as scenes intermingle and emotions change.
Liz Cooke's unchanging set of rocky floor and bare trees is convincing of the November setting of the play, while sound and music by Jon Nicholls, cleverly divides scenes as well as creating a realistic passing disco ferry in the second act.
All in all, it's a very amusing play and it was wonderful to be having a good old laugh at a nearly full Playhouse again.
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