The scenario to FOOLS ISLAND sees a man fall from the sky and land on a deserted island. He has to find himself again, has to learn to breathe, to walk and move, to look around and perceive this new world around him. His way of coping is to act the clown. From one moment to the next the house lights go on and he discovers that he has an audience that he has to play to. A little later down the track he learns that he is not alone, that he has to contend with another person/spirit, someone, in some ways like him, but in other ways very different.

Through his journey, the clown expresses himself, at first in gibberish but later in Shakespearean language. In his seventy minutes of traffic on the stage, we hear quotations from many of the classic Shakespeare plays.

FOOL’S ISLAND isn’t altogether a one man show. Through Gilshenan’s performance, musician Rose Turtle Ertler effectively underscores and comments on the action with the use of a great range of instruments.

Jasmine Christie’s set is to the point with the traditional palm tree and a carpet stretched out indicating the land.

A joint Sydney Theatre Company and Tamarama Rock Surfers Theatre Company production, Darren Gilshenan and Chris Harris’s entertaining FOOL’S ISLAND opened at the Sydney Theatre Company’s Wharf 2 Theatre on Monday 30th July and plays until Friday August 17, 2012.

(c) David Kary

1 August, 2012