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No Holiday on Neville's Island

By Rick Bowen

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TAKE four very different businessmen, place them on an island and you have the recipe for some memorable, funny exchanges. But there's a darker strand running through Neville's Island, Altrincham Garrick's first play of the season.

Roy, by far the most interesting character in the piece, has a fragile sanity and takes refuge in his religious beliefs when it all gets too much. The pick of the performances comes from William Nolan as Roy, who sucks every ounce of sympathy out of the audience as this troubled but sympathetic character.

Bryn Thomas also excels as Gordon, a man with the shortest of fuses and an endless supply of sarcastic barbs. Then again, anyone in this situation would struggle to maintain a sunny disposition. The island may not be Robinson Crusoe territory but it might as well be, as resourcefulness is in short supply. You definitely wouldn't want to share a lifeboat with these guys.

While the acting is impressive, it's impossible not to heap praise on Barry Fletcher's brilliant set which really gave me a flavour of the great outdoors. The Garrick wasn't exactly packed to the rafters on Tuesday night which is a real pity, because Neville's Island, from the pen of Calendar Girls creator Tim Firth, is a very good play.