Sheila’s Island, starring Olivier Award winner Sara Crowe (Private Lives, Aldwych Theatre; Calendar Girls the Musical, UK Tour and West End; Four Weddings and a Funeral), Eastern Eye Award winner Rina Fatania (Waking/Walking, Kiln Theatre; Dead Dog in a Suitcase, UK and International tour), Judy Flynn (The Brittas Empire, BBC; Dinnerladies, BBC), and Abigail Thaw (Endeavour, ITV) will open at the King’s Theatre, Edinburgh from the 1st – 5th March.
Bonfire night 2019 and Sheila, Denise, Julie, and Fay are Team C in Pennine Mineral Water Ltd.’s annual outward bound team-building weekend. Somehow, Marketing Manager Sheila has been nominated team leader, and, using her cryptic crossword solving skills, has unwittingly stranded her team on an island in the Lake District.
As the mobile batteries die, and cold and hunger take over, our intrepid heroines find themselves called on to manufacture escape routes using cable ties and spatulas and create a rescue flag with plastic plates and a toasting fork.
This gender-swapped reimagining of Tim Firth’s highly acclaimed comedy Neville’s Island sees four women try to survive an outward bound team-building weekend. Sheila’s Island illuminates the vulnerability and viciousness of office relationships and asks the big questions: "Is it possible to build an adequate night shelter with a prom dress and a sleeveless jumper? Is there an I in Team? And do endless verses of Kumbaya really keep up spirits?".
Tim Firth comments, "As a male writer I initially thought what happens on the island could only happen between men. It took Joanna Read to remind me that shoddy, childish and viciously destructive behaviour is not the exclusive preserve of the male sex"
Joanna Read, Director of Sheila’s Island, comments, "I’ve had a very enjoyable time demonstrating to Tim quite how mean women can be. I’m thrilled to be working with such a talented, well-known cast. They have so much comedy experience between them it’s going to be hysterical working together."
1st – 5th March
King’s Theatre, Edinburgh 2 Leven Street, Edinburgh, EH3 9LQ https://www.capitaltheatres.com/whats-on/sheilas-island
