Photos

Photos: Peter Whittle

In Rehearsal

Cast

Due to the indisposition of Mike Millsted, the part of Tom was taken over by Mark Pendry one week before the production.

Croydon Advertiser Review

Peter Steptoe

This three hander from David Hare won the Laurence Olivier award for 1995 and after the National had a short West-end run.

My own view is that it could well have been a radio play except for the opportunity it gave to Elaine Wilson as schoolteacher Kyra Hollis to cook a spaghetti dinner on stage, which she did smoothly and competently causing salivating in the audience.

The weakness as far as the play was concerned was the long explanations necessary with only three players to establish what has gone before.

Edward Sargeant was played by fresh faced Joe Clowser who cannot get on with restaurateur Dad after his mother died and visits Kyra who worked for Dad and had managed to keep the peace. The son departed and Father appeared to resume the liaison that Kyra had ended when his late wife discovered the affair. Consummation took place once again only for them to discover that they now have opposing views on life. What is success and does it only relate to wealth?

The set, a flat with attached kitchen constructed by Messrs. Neale, Arlott and Daniels merited its round of applause. In addition great credit must go to Mark Pendry playing Ton Sargeant who due to the withdrawal of a cast member had only ten days preparation. Yes he appeared with his book but as director Ian Akhurst informed us did not just give a read through. He was the epitome of the self confident self indulgent domineering successful businessman. He knew all his moves and cleverly at the end for the climax of his part discarded his book and emoted from memory.

My criticism is that an actor on the proscenium stage should not continually speak upstage or when addressing/listening to a fellow actor only appear in profile. The eyes are the source of all conviction in acting and playing only in profile makes it difficult to hold an audience. Elaine Wilson, an otherwise excellent actress, was guilty of this and for me it spoiled her performance. I am surprised that the director was not aware of it during rehearsals.

Surrey Mirror Review

Peter Reed

Find a replacement or cancel the show – the awful dilemma facing director Ian Akhurst just 11 days prior to The Miller Centre Players’ latest production Skylight.

The decision to ask Mark Hendry to take on the pivotal role of Tom in this three hander at such short notice was very brave, and while he was ‘with book’ when I saw the show, not that this was really noticeable, I congratulate him and his fellow players on their performance.

The set of Kyra’s ‘shabby attic flat’, was well designed, if anything a little too well – the decor especially would have benefited from some more serious distressing. That said, well done for providing the fully functional kitchenette upstage of the main living area.

David Hare’s Skylight, a Nineties drama of love lost, focuses on the past relationship between Tom, successful restaurateur and hotelier, and Kyra, his ex-mistress and former employee, who now teaches at a failing London school. While unravelling the truth about their past, the play also challenges a dichotomy of social values and awareness.

As Tom’s son Edwards, Joe Clowser had the thankless task of appearing only in the first and last scenes, but it was a well studied cameo and provided the audience with the all important back-fill.

Kyra should present herself as a ‘new person’ – someone who has rejected her well-to-do upbringing to embrace the moral rewards of helping those less fortunate, without pretension. In this, Elaine Wilson certainly went a long way to giving a fine characterisation, though I just wanted her to be more at ease in her own home and show more of a hint of her former self, that once held a flame for Tom. Perhaps she was too immersed in preparing the ‘spag-bol’. Full marks for peeling and chopping an onion on stage without ruining the make-up.

Hendry’s Tom was every inch the self-made Thatcherite, from an ‘ordinary background’, constantly pacing and pontificating his polarised opinions, though he lacked somewhat in emotion for both his ex-wife and ex-lover.

I just wonder how the production would have turned out if Hendry had the full rehearsal period to achieve the true potential of the character.