Edinburgh King’s Theatre: Sheila’s Island ***

Outward bound courses and team bonding exercises are ripe for comedy and drama.
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Sheila’s Island can’t quite decide which it wants to be, and, at times, falls between the two stools.

That said, when the sharp one liners land they do so with some punch, and the tight cast make the absolute most of what they have.

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But this story of four middle aged, middle class, middle management women stuck overnight on an island is more Lord of The Files than Lord Of The Flies.

Sheila's IslandSheila's Island
Sheila's Island
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Tim Firth’s play was originally Neville’s Island.

This gender-changing re-working touches on some hefty issues - mental health, loneliness, and grief - but doesn’t fully develop any of them.

The setting of the Lake District doesn’t inject any real sense of real peril, despite a terrific set from Liz Cooke, and some solid, wholly credible characters.

They all work well together.

The withering sarcasm of Denise (Abigail Thaw) is offset by the tenderness and frailty of the birdwatching Christian (Sara Crowe), and Judy Flynn is solid, practical team leader whose literal reading of the clues leads them into the mess in the first place.

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But kudos have to go to Tracy Collier, understudy, who stepped into Rina Fatania’s shoes as Julie, the uber-prepared woman whose character gradually emerges as this story unfolds, and perhaps gave us the most interesting of the four characters.

Until Saturday, King’s Theatre, Edinburgh

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