Play Review: “Skylight”

When David Hare’s Skylight premiered at the end of the Thatcher era in Britain, it surely struck a nerve with audiences. A play that intertwines politics and passion via two ex-lovers, the political ideology is still as sharp as ever even though the play has dated itself.

In this first ever revival, Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan portray Tom and Kyra. Set entirely in Kyra’s dingy flat (beautifully designed by Bob Crowley to feel cramped but homey), Tom bursts in one night after years of not speaking to his former flame. The two spend a long evening together excavating their past relationship and examining all the ways in which they have grown apart. Tom was married, Kyra his mistress of six years. Now that his wife has died, he realizes he wants Kyra back. If such a thing is even possible so many years and experiences later.

Nighy expertly commands the stage, exploding through the front door with a sort of neurotic swagger. He patrols the apartment as if he owns the place while getting big laughs from the audience with his disbelief of Kyra’s unappealing new digs. He refuses to touch the kitchen chair with his bare hands and calls her out for living “in Siberia like conditions”.

Mulligan’s character is less flamboyant, but has a fiery intensity that matches Nighy’s energy every step of the way. The two of them form a great bond on stage that actually feels like a lived-through relationship. I can’t say that I could see any sexual chemistry up there, but the deep care for each other was real. Even in moments of violent anger and silverware hurling. Matthew Beard also entertains in small but charming bookend part as Tom’s idealist son.

The meat of the play is Hare’s peek into political ideology. Tom is an entrepreneur and successful restaurant owner. He values finer things, has money for meals and limousines, and chides Kyra for her choice to not reach her potential. Kyra obviously sees things differently, claiming she lives in a less than stellar apartment and teaches troubled kids to make a difference. If she doesn’t do it, who will? Issues of class, economics, and education are passionate topics of debate. Both characters realize they have shifted to opposite ends of the spectrum during their time apart, or perhaps they were set in this thinking all along. It’s a conversation that feels familiar with current arguments surrounding income inequality.

I only wish Mr. Hare gave his characters more of an arc to match the enduring relevance of their arguments. Stephen Daldry is not a flashy director, and he brings out as much subtlety and nuance in his actors as possible. It’s a welcome change from the more bombastic styles usually seen on Broadway. And despite a mountain of words spewed back and forth, the play moves along at a clip (though his actors would do well to pause for laughter).  But as the play comes to a close I found myself thinking “what is the endgame here? What are they building to?”.

It turns out not much. The actors do a brilliant job at taking us through the twists and reveals of their past life together, but they end up in essentially the same scenario in which they started. Beliefs are shared, some closure found. But I am stumped as to what they learned along their journey together or how it changed them. David Hare is always successful in building complex characters, but this piece doesn’t give those compelling characters anywhere to go.

Skylight
Golden Theatre
Written by: David Hare
Directed by: Stephen Daldry
Starring: Bill Nighy, Carey Mulligan, and Matthew Beard
Run Time: 2 Hours and 20 minutes, with one intermission