If you were stranded alone on a desert island, what would you want to take with you? Our answer to this question is often a good indication of what is most valuable to us. Pragmatic individuals might take the question literally, opting for survival gear, while those more sentimental might want personal items which remind them of home.
In Island State, something similar to this question is asked through two entirely different women struggling to coexist on the island which stands as the last remaining bit of land that used to be Great Britain. The childlike and innocent Josie is set against bitter survivalist Marilyn as they both attempt to come to terms with their circumstances and their companion.
The battle between the pragmatic and the sentimental is often at the centre of disaster narratives, and Island State combines two of the most common styles of the genre. As a mixture of environmental disaster and desert island narrative, the play seeks to examine the worth of survival when there is nothing left to play for. Home is gone and rescue will not come.
Some good thoughts are brought up on on ethics in the face of survival, but they are not terribly original and lack resonance. The question of the value of a life at the cost of a few days of survival typically holds our attention because of the possibility of rescue. If a few extra days provide the opportunity to survive or be rescued, are the crimes committed worth that survival? But in Island State, no hope is ever provided that rescue could be coming, in fact the characters both state the opposite as their island is quickly being flooded. The question here is not 'The life of another vs. survival', it is 'The life of another vs. purposeless violence.' The conclusions it comes to are not less valid because of this, but they are less thought provoking as the argument seems unbalanced from the start.
Dom Riley's script is, for the most part, very well written, and surprisingly funny. This is largely thanks to the expert delivery from both actresses, who portray their characters very well and are able to give the story appropriate tension and release when its needed. It is rather interesting to watch the two women find out about each other as they delve into each others' past and start to regain the humanity lost in the scramble to survive.
Admitting a situation is as bleak as Island State does requires that something interesting come out of it; something should call our values into question. Ultimately, Island State refuses to make any statement we haven't seen before. It removes all the stakes which give the pragmatic option any consideration, making the question meaningless.
