On a bitterly cold London evening, schoolteacher Kyra Hollis receives an unexpected visit from her former lover, Tom Sergeant, a successful and charismatic restaurateur whose wife has recently died. As the evening progresses, the two attempt to rekindle their once passionate relationship only to find themselves locked in a dangerous battle of opposing ideologies and mutual desires. Can they find their way back to each other, or has the time for their tumultuous romance reached its end?
Skylight
Critics
LemonMeter
Reviews: 8
Reviews
Tear-stained stories of impossible love have been a staple of theater for centuries. And David Hare’s 1995 heart-piercing drama, “Skylight,” his tightest, and arguably his best melodrama yet, delivers big on the rueful pleasures of that genre at Chance Theater, Anaheim.
However, this is a terrific piece of theatre once it gets moving. There's an outstanding 90- or 100-minute play here centering on the up-and-down relationship between these two very different people, a London teacher who is devoted to the task of helping disadvantaged kids and a restaurateur who is dedicated only to making money; unfortunately, it takes Hare two hours and 20 minutes to tell his story.
Its issues resonate in enticing new ways, and this production is a reminder that it's a durable work worthy of reviving – maybe not a masterpiece, but a great vehicle for two performers who can convey the magnetism and frustrations of a powerful attraction between opposites.
Certain to inspire particularly spirited discussions at post-show talkbacks, Skylight once again shows off Chance Theater as its best-in-intimate-OC-theater best.
In Skylight playing now at the Chance Theatre in Anaheim Hills we once again explore love–the positive, the negative, and its limits in this 2 hour and 20-minute slow burn of a highly watchable theatrical performance.
Love, lust, resentment, and guilt are some of the emotional conundrums broached in David Hare's drama, Skylight,which won the Olivier Award for Play of the Year in its premiere production at London's National Theatre in 1995...
Directed with much emotion by Oanh Nguyen — with superb stagecraft by Bruce Goodrich (scenic design); Adriana Lambarri (Costuming); Matt Schleicher (Lighting); and Ryan Brodkin (Sound).
In director Oanh Nguyen's way-more-than capable hands, the Chance production neatly corners through Hare's rapid-fire tonal shifts as the protagonists grapple with each other as well as themselves. Nguyen, Chance's founding artistic director, has time after time, in both straight plays and musicals, successfully developed the humanity to be found in a text. Character foibles, flaws, their fantastic flights … Nguyen employs subtle touches of staging and timing to coax them out and to our attention.
At the Chance, under the direction of Oanh Nguyen, actors Jessica Erin Martin and Steve Marvel attack the play with zeal and conviction, each staking a firm claim to their passionate views of life. Both are riveted in their beliefs, yet they are inexorably drawn to one another.
Tear-stained stories of impossible love have been a staple of theater for centuries. And David Hare’s 1995 heart-piercing drama, “Skylight,” his tightest, and arguably his best melodrama yet, delivers big on the rueful pleasures of that genre at Chance Theater, Anaheim.
However, this is a terrific piece of theatre once it gets moving. There's an outstanding 90- or 100-minute play here centering on the up-and-down relationship between these two very different people, a London teacher who is devoted to the task of helping disadvantaged kids and a restaurateur who is dedicated only to making money; unfortunately, it takes Hare two hours and 20 minutes to tell his story.
Its issues resonate in enticing new ways, and this production is a reminder that it's a durable work worthy of reviving – maybe not a masterpiece, but a great vehicle for two performers who can convey the magnetism and frustrations of a powerful attraction between opposites.
Certain to inspire particularly spirited discussions at post-show talkbacks, Skylight once again shows off Chance Theater as its best-in-intimate-OC-theater best.
In Skylight playing now at the Chance Theatre in Anaheim Hills we once again explore love–the positive, the negative, and its limits in this 2 hour and 20-minute slow burn of a highly watchable theatrical performance.
Love, lust, resentment, and guilt are some of the emotional conundrums broached in David Hare's drama, Skylight,which won the Olivier Award for Play of the Year in its premiere production at London's National Theatre in 1995...
Directed with much emotion by Oanh Nguyen — with superb stagecraft by Bruce Goodrich (scenic design); Adriana Lambarri (Costuming); Matt Schleicher (Lighting); and Ryan Brodkin (Sound).
In director Oanh Nguyen's way-more-than capable hands, the Chance production neatly corners through Hare's rapid-fire tonal shifts as the protagonists grapple with each other as well as themselves. Nguyen, Chance's founding artistic director, has time after time, in both straight plays and musicals, successfully developed the humanity to be found in a text. Character foibles, flaws, their fantastic flights … Nguyen employs subtle touches of staging and timing to coax them out and to our attention.
At the Chance, under the direction of Oanh Nguyen, actors Jessica Erin Martin and Steve Marvel attack the play with zeal and conviction, each staking a firm claim to their passionate views of life. Both are riveted in their beliefs, yet they are inexorably drawn to one another.