Image: Anna Samson and Colin Friels in Skylight. Photograph by Jeff Busby.
David Hare is a seasoned playwright and an institution in UK theatre. Skylight is a multi-award winning show enjoying its revival status since it premiered in London 20 years ago.
Kyra (Anna Samson) breaks off her relationship with wealthy married man Tom (played by Colin Friels) and settles for a tougher life as a teacher in a disadvantaged school. But is it idealism that drives her? Or her need for penance? When her former lover Tom tracks her down to her cold London flat to rekindle their relationship she must decide if she could ever again be the person she once was.
In the opening scene Tom’s son (Edward Sergeant) visits Kyra to convince her to see Tom, who is lost in grief after the long demise of his wife to cancer. It’s a neat set up. Lots of exposition as they catch up and inform the audience of the history between them. Once Tom arrives ‘spontaneously’ they rake over the old coals of the once passionate desire for each other, weighing up the rights and wrongs of it from all those years ago.
Essentially Kyra finds it difficult to reconcile her guilt for the affair, Tom tries to convince her that her lifestyle choices are not the right fit for her. Tom, however, is self absorbed and unchangeable. He continues to convince and justify his own life choices to an accepting and understanding former lover. It’s a kitchen sink guilt/shame dramedy that toos and fros, as the once fiery affair becomes witty banter. It is wordy and clever, but sometimes both characters end up sounding like the one voice arguing with themselves.
Anna Samson is charming and believable as Kyra, but uses her voice in some of the more emotional moments to affect, rather than simply listening to her other actor and playing the line.
Friels sometimes sounds like he is inhabiting his best Michael Caine impersonation but is solid and often funny. Tom is a closed off character, not reserved per se, but hides his vulnerability behind his success. He seems disconnected from the real world and Kyra provides that door to reality for him even if he doesn’t want walk through it alone.
Dale Ferguson’s design is outstanding, Kyra’s simple flat sits on stage while other (unfloored and imagined) apartments reach up high into the sky. It’s a beautiful metaphor for the real world that Tom doesn’t want to see.
The play has a false ending when Tom finally departs Kyra’s life, but here the son returns as a bookend to the opening. In what is a scene full of warmth and ambiguity, perhaps there is more hope than Hare is giving himself credit for, and it provides the audience the most touching and beautiful moment in the play.
This MTC production however was no ho hum affair; it was well performed, beautifully designed, even well written but too clever for its own good.
It will be popular and widely enjoyed amongst its subscriber base. But it’s safe theatre – where you can rage at the world from the comfort of your cushioned seat – and I stopped caring about the characters almost by interval.
Rating: 3 Stars out of 5
Skylight
By David Hare
Cast: Colin Friels, Anna Samson and Toby Wallace
Director: Dean Bryant
Set & Costume: Dale Ferguson
Lighting Designer: Matt Scott
Composer & Sound Designer: Matthew Frank
Voice & Dialect Coach: Leith McPherson
Southbank Theatre
18 June – 23 July 2016​
