Celebrating 85 years of performing.

Oldbury`s  hidden jewel of theatre is doing what it does best, giving a professional and polished performance of theatre production that has all the needs you want – intrigue, comedy, and being able to take you in to their world of the story and they are holding your hand with entirely through the performance.

So, what did we see? Sheila’s Island, written by Tim Firth and Directed by Phil Astle. We were asked to come along by the wonderful Assistant Director Alan Groucott who was, and rightly so, proud of this performance of Sheila’s Island, and after the show, we were in total agreement with Alan.

When the curtains opened, we were took aback at the quality of the stage setting or the “set” that greeted us. Just to see a set dressed with a literal island, sand around its base, a huge tree which would come into its own later in the production and yes, size does matter along with and what we didn’t expect, was even a bit of the Derwentwater from the Lake District brought in that our characters emerged from at the start of the show! Its worth a mention about the Set Construction Team led by Peter Turton. We salute you and your team for the hard work in creating the world we were emersed in. This set was also wonderfully lit and kept atmospheric with the lighting design led by Nick Fereday and his team.

What’s it about? Let me take you to late 2019, a time that no one knew what was in store for 2020 and beyond in our now much changed world.

Its Bonfire Night, November 5th. 4 “middle management” women are sent on an outward-bound team building weekend. Yes, most of us have had one of these days or weekends foisted upon us as some point in our lives if you’ve had the lucky experience of working in the private corporate sector and most, if not all, tend to have gone catastrophically wrong at some point leading to some raised eyebrows when arriving back at work on the Monday! Oh I can tell you some tales (no names will be mentioned to protect the innocent or not so innocent).

So, we have Sheila, Denise, Julie, and Fay who are Team C in Pennine Mineral Water Ltd’s annual outward-bound team- building weekend and they end up on Rampsholme Island, on the Derwentwater in the Lake District. 

The Cast emerge via the river soaking wet, yes, soaking wet, with Sheila lamenting the boat sinking causing them to be in various predicaments, not least Denise losing her expensive backpack which she is not best pleased about and which has ramifications later on. However we are assured with Julie having the teams tekky mobile phone to keep in touch with base camp that she can contact someone to be rescued. This however turns out to be her husband who isn’t home leading to issues about what he’s doing in Aldi and who with!

Fay has come back from leave which is thought by some to be a “long holiday” and is thrust into this scenario but as the holder of the binoculars, she is the “look out” but takes an interest in the birdlife and finding herself with godliness to help her through the situation.

The weekend progresses with a rounders match that turns in to a French Cricket session that goes wrong, a fight over the solitary sausage kept by Julie for “elevenses” which, after Fay insists on saying “Grace” for, Denise wanting to make sure she gets the larger part of the sausage which had been cut by the “survival knife” bought by Julie, has an unfortunate demise but the characters go through their shared life experiences which lead to a dramatic ending before the team is eventually found by the rescue team sent out to get them. Just don’t mention the slice of pizza that comes floating towards the island for the ravenous crew.

The cast, of Samantha Gessey playing Sheila, Sarah Wilkins playing Denise, Emma Woodcock playing Julie and Emma Francis playing Fay worked together in bringing the characters to life with all their faults and changing scenes seamlessly. To remember not only your lines but then to remember which scene has which prop and where is very challenging but they completed this feat with smoothness that the West End in London could only envy.

Superbly talented actresses that deserve all the praise that could be given to them ensuring you are taken through every twist and turn of this story of Sheila’s Island and you wouldn’t find any better performance anywhere else. Cast perfectly, directed thoughtfully and to have a production of this quality for the mere price of £10.00 is astounding.

Shiela’s Island is performing from Monday 13th May every evening with the last night being Saturday 18th May.

Tickets available online from www.oldburyrep.org or you can ring the box office on 0121 552 2761. The cost of a ticket is £10.00 per person.