Skylight

David Hare’s brilliant Skylight gets a stirring up-close production at the Ensemble where the wrap-around audience must share an icy, cramped North London flat with Hare’s two unhappy lovers. In fact a gentleman in the front row has to move his feet every time schoolteacher Kyra (Katharine Cullen) or visiting restaurateur Tom (Sean Taylor) moves between grotty, fully working kitchenette and narrow sitting room.

It’s a real pleasure to inspect designer Ailsa Paterson’s setting at close quarters, and the moving performances of Taylor and Cullen stand up to minute examination — he, blustering and wounded; she, intelligently watchful and vulnerable.

Skylight won Best New Play at the 1995 Laurence Olivier Awards and, moving to Broadway, swept the board (Best Play, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Director) at the 1997 Tony Awards. The play’s private anguish is set against a pre-GFC London, where super-rich Tom sees only financial opportunities and passive Kyra wants only to help the underprivileged children she teaches. And yet, believably, they love each other. Their tensions, scorn and desires are beautifully felt and displayed. Our sympathies shift regularly between them, and there’s a heart-stopping moment of revealed truth at the Act One conclusion that will be difficult to forget.

Director Mark Kilmurry expertly choreographs this emotional roller coaster. Cullen, daughter of veteran actor Max Cullen, seems particularly perfect as the jumpered, cardiganed and bereted Kyra, a warm and confused woman working on her survival techniques in a cold and selfish world.

Frank Hatherley