Skylight
A review on the West End production

Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan deliver a highly amusing and thought provoking script. Nighy's character Tom Sergeant is a restaurateur who stumbles back into the life of a girl "he once knew". The story takes you into the history of their relationship and its deep complications, including the son of Nighy's character (Beard) and a wife who has since passed on. Nighy's arrogant and ignorant character is both funny and childlike, surprisingly similar to his son who hasn't fallen too far from the casting tree.

It is richly amusing and offers some good, honest, wait-for-the-punchline humour. Mulligan queues up the ably delivered jokes for Nighy however, her character is allowed more time to develop and delivers the role of the self-centered, grass roots, righteous teacher very believably. The tensions between the central characters, and their muddle of anger and inner heartache, echo through the hallways of the grimy council tower block bringing to the fore some interesting stances on society and politics that clearly the London audience enjoy and share.

The mechanics of the production are very smooth with a clever but simple set and the audio accompaniment is well balanced. Be sure to have dinner pre-theatre, Mulligan cooks up (and eats) a spaghetti Bolognese live on stage! A solid production and well worth a trip to this North East London council estate.