10 – 14 May

Sheila’s Island, a new comedy drama by award-winning writer Tim Firth, visits the Theatre Royal Bath from Tuesday 10^th to Saturday 14^th May on its first UK tour starring Olivier Award-winner Sara Crowe (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Private Lives), Judy Flynn (Dinnerladies, Call The Midwife), Abigail Thaw (Endeavour) and Eastern Eye Award-winner Rina Fatania.

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 their mobile batteries die and cold and hunger take over, the 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. Questions are asked; truths are told and dirty washing is aired. Is it possible to build an adequate night shelter with a prom dress and a sleeveless jumper? Is there an I in Team? Can Sheila keep tempers from fraying and get them safely back to shore? What is Julie’s husband really up to in Aldi? And why are they on this team building exercise when they could be at a spa?

Rooted in the everyday lives of four women finding themselves truly out of their comfort zones, Sheila’s Island examines what lies beneath the superficiality of office relationships.

This sparkling, sharp-witted comedy, akin to The Office meets Lord of the Flies meets Miranda, is the latest stage production from Tim Firth, the writer of Calendar Girls, Kinky Boots, the Take That musical, The Band, and the comedy Neville’s Island. Sheila’s Island is directed by the Yvonne Arnaud Theatre’s Director and Chief Executive Joanna Read.

Olivier Award-winner Sara Crowe plays the role of Fay. Sara’s vast array of film, television and theatre credits range from playing the first bride in Four Weddings and a Funeral to roles in Born and Bred, EastEnders, Doctors and Midsomer Murders. Her acclaimed stage performances in the West End include the Noël Coward plays Private Lives, for which she won the Olivier Award winner for Best Supporting Actress, and Hay Fever, for which she was Olivier Award nominated for Best Comedy Performance. This will be the seventeenth time that Sara has performed in a production at the Theatre Royal Bath; starting with Private Lives alongside Joan Collins in 1990 through to more recent visits in Fallen Angels in 2014 and How The Other Loves in 2017. On her latest return visit to Bath, Sara Crowe will be in conversation on Friday 13^th May at 12 noon as part of the Theatre Royal’s Special Events programme.

The role of Sheila is played by Judy Flynn, who is well known on television as Madge in The House of Eliott, Julie in The Brittas Empire and Val in Dinnerladies. Her many television credits also include Doctors, Hollyoaks, Call the Midwife, Shameless, Where The Heart Is, The Bill, Hetty Wainthrope Investigates, Peak Practice and Making Out. Judy’s theatre credits have included productions for the National Theatre, Sheffield’s Crucible Theatre, Northern Stage, Nottingham Playhouse, Cardiff’s Sherman Theatre and both the Library and Contact theatres in Manchester. Judy last performed at the Theatre Royal Bath in Heritage in 1998.

Abigail Thaw, who plays the role of Denise, is best known on television as Dorothea Frazil, the editor of the Oxford Mail in the ITV’s series Endeavour. Her many theatre credits have included visits to the Theatre Royal on tour in Entertaining Angels in 2006, Whipping It Up in 2007 and Ladies in Lavender in 2012. Abigail has worked with director Joanna Read twice before in Macbeth and Rough Crossing at Salisbury and Watford. Her screen credits also include Black Mirror 2, Casualty, Agatha Christie’s Poirot, The Stepfather and The Inbetweeners 2.

Rina Fatania appears as Julie. Winner of Best Actress at the 2017 Eastern Eye Awards, Rina’s numerous stage credits include the UK tours of Anita & Me, Britain’s Got Bhangra and Kneehigh’s Wah! Wah! Girls; The Empress for the RSC; Dead Dog In A Suitcase (And Other Love Songs) for Kneehigh on UK tour and internationally; and Bombay Dreams in the West End. Her film credits include the Bollywood film Raabta. Rina last performed at the Theatre Royal Bath in The Man In The White Suit in 2019.

Writer Tim Firth, whose previous plays include Neville’s Island, said, “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 and Chief Executive of Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, said: “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 who have so much comedy experience between them.”

Sheila’s Island tours to the Theatre Royal Bath from Tuesday 10^th to Saturday 14^th May. Tickets are on sale at the Theatre Royal Bath Box Office on 01225 448844 and online at www.theatreroyal.org.uk

Photo credit: Craig Fuller