It’s not often the word ‘epic’ appears in the same sentence as ‘comedy’. But ‘Sheila’s Island’, by Tim Firth, the Apollo’s latest production, definitely qualifies for both. That assumes comedy is the best description of one of the darkest and most concentrated litanies of sarcastic, undermining ‘jokes’ at the expense of work colleagues ever presented on the well-trodden boards.

The curtain opened on a beautiful natural scene. The premise is attractively simple: Sheila from marketing (Carole Crowe), Julie of Human Resources (Julie Stonestreet), Denise, a production manager (Vicki Cook) and Fay from finance (Caroline Read), take a wrong turning on their weekend team-building jolly, hit a rock in their borrowed rowing boat, and are stranded on an inhospitable island in Derwentwater, in the Lake District. Their single permitted mobile phone is disconnected soon, and they have one sausage for sustenance. A perfect recipe, it seemed to me, for initiative, resourcefulness and co-operation to be exercised to the full. But how wrong I was.

All four actors were fully credible, spoke and presented their individual positions so well, I felt a strong rapport with each except for Denise, the overpoweringly dominant one, and prayed for Firth to engineer the longed-for adjustments to be argued by Sheila, Julie and Fay, to lead to reconsideration by Denise, and a return to the emotional stability each of them deserved and craved. At one point, after Denise’s cruel attack on Sheila’s absent husband Angus, supposedly for philandering – because he hasn’t answered his phone (that well-known sign!) – Julie comes close to taking Denise properly to task for her constant jibes, but then quickly backs away. This is where I realised that Firth wanted us to suffer, along with the characters, a kind of uncorrected abuse – anti-Christian, anti-Sheila’s mistaken logic, anti-Julie’s rather charming liking for gadgets. I know of no office staff who would allow such things today.

Apart from relieving the tension which dominated the evening, this would have given perfect opportunities for each character to develop further. I wanted to know more about them all, especially Denise: I felt that a gentle coaxing from the others could have helped us to discover her reasons for extreme bitterness, and whether her constant barrages bring her true happiness. That way lay the catharsis so prized by the ancient Greeks, and which would have enhanced our last half-hour in the theatre.

Ironically, it’s left to the bird-watching, church-going Fay to release the tension of the final scene. The gyrfalcon she worships and pursues becomes a source of food, just in time for a search party to spare us the spectacle of consumption of raw meat. Phew!

So many congratulations to the actors and directors. Movement and continuity were faultless, and the narrative forged ahead. I can’t wait for the next production now.