"As you watch Ms. Mulligan and Mr. Nighy move magnetically toward and away from each other in Stephen Daldry’s exquisitely balanced London-born production, you can’t help thinking that on some profound level these two were made to be together...Tear-stained stories of impossible love have been a staple of theater for centuries. And Mr. Hare’s 1995 drama, his tightest and quite possibly his best, delivers big on the rueful pleasures of that genre."
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"Throughout, Hare demands to know how are we treating one another—as humans or objects? This might sound like preaching or, worse, allegory—but Hare’s psychological acuity and love of articulate blusterers is too strong for that: He combines the dialectical relish of Shaw, the cozy-sweater Englishness of Rattigan and the seething outrage of Osborne. All of which means that the material is red meat to actors as fearless and deep-diving as Mulligan and Nighy."
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"Here they are in David Hare’s "Skylight", a monkey and a moonbeam, somehow bringing the same story to thrilling life. Nighy is the monkey, or perhaps better to call him a Catherine wheel of tics and poses and stutters and quirks. Mulligan creates the illusion of character with no affectations at all. She is as rivetingly, radically transparent as he is hilariously baroque, but in the end that’s only fitting; the play, one of Hare’s best, is about the gap between what’s reconcilable and what’s not."
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"Fine though “Skylight” is, this high-profile revival is disappointing...Nor do Mr. Nighy and Ms. Mulligan emit the scent of mutual desire without which “Skylight” makes no sense: They act like father and daughter, not unhappy lovers. Ms. Mulligan pulls the final grade up to a B-double-minus, but unless you’re a fan of hers, don’t bother."
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"In a season marked by alpha stars in beta plays, Nighy and co-star Carey Mulligan have a brilliant vehicle worthy of their complementary talents. Piloted with exceptional sensitivity by Stephen Daldry and beautifully designed, this revival is as fine as the original — while being utterly different in texture, tone and impact. The result is riveting, as absorbing a drama as can be seen anywhere this season...Skylight is a keeper and this revival is one for the ages."
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"The Bolognese sauce that simmers on a working stove in “Skylight” looks good enough to eat, but this much-admired play about exes who try to reheat their passion isn’t always so palatable...As romances go, David Hare’s mid-1990s drama of a May-December affair stirs the brain with its still-topical thoughts on class divides and politics as well as how well opposites ultimately attract. The heart, meanwhile, is all but bypassed."
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"The fierce pas de deux of love and loss and anguish executed by Carey Mulligan and Bill Nighy in “Skylight” leaves you breathless — and wondering how they can sustain this level of emotional intensity throughout the show’s 13-week Broadway run."
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"The excellence of the production goes a long way toward finding balance in the play. While it has a terrific first act, Skylight ultimately works better as a complex relationship postmortem than as an issues debate about class, privilege and social conscience. But even when Hare stops inferring his point and starts using his characters as mouthpieces, this is riveting stuff, its commentary on the wealth divide as relevant now as it was in the immediate post-Thatcher years."
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