Polished cast
in Skylight ge

& Skylight by David Hare at the Vancouver Playhouse to Feb. 20.
B Hamlet by William Shakespeare at the Stantey Theatre to Feb. 20.

Martin Millerchip
Curtain Call

THE plays of David Hare will be unfamiliar fare to many a local theatregoer
but the Vancouver Playhouse production of Skylight is a feast to be savoured at
leisure.

Co founder of England ’s Joint Stock Theatre in the “50s and associate director at the National
‘Theatre in the "SOs Hare continues as one of England's major playwrights. A prolitie dramatist since
Mag won him his first major award in 1970, his last three plays could all be playing Broadway at the
same ume this vear: Ve Blue Room, Via Dolorosa and Asiv's View.

Skylight is less Obviousiy political than many of his plays but, tke most great works, retleets the
society in which it takes place.

Or, perhaps, the play is just as political but North Van director Bill Dow and actors Gina
Wilkinson and Terrence Kelly do such an excellent job of the love story tbat the characters’ phila-
sophical opposition is more a dynamic of their personal tension,

No matter. | was spellbound throughout.

We meet Kyra first as she trudges up the
stairs to her high ceilinged, partially
redecorated, treezing cold tharin.a
depressing northeastern part of London
that nobody goes to untess they live
there.

The set. a stunning creation by Telen
Jarvis, thrusts cowards the audiesee ia
blend of reatinm and representation, Phe
sink and stove allow tor aimeal te be
cooked in real time, while the ceiling fs
partially completed to evoke sot only the
architectural plaster detailing of an old
house bur, with the huge window, recalls
the central sembol of the plav: a skylight,
We fearn about the skylight first tron the
teenage son of Kyra’s formes lover.
Young Edward drops in unexpectedly
outot the rain to reveal that his mother
died of cancer a vear ago and that his
father, Kom, is since impossible to live
with. Edward is not sure what he wants,
but knows that life with his parents was better when Kyra was around.

When Tom’s wife was diagnosed with cancer he built her a special bedroom with a huge skvlight
over the bed. What that represented to her is only tangentially revealed.

Tom and his wife employed Kyra in their first restaurant vears ago. Instant rapport led to a man-
agerial position and an eight-year affair with Tom.

When Tom's wife discovered the affair Kyra instantly watked out of Tom and Edward’s lite just
as she had always said she would.

photo David Cooper

LOCAL actor Gregor Trpin (left) and Michae!
Shanks in the Arts Club production of Hamlet.

ee a
NOTE: Special Consiiration
iven to CUI CURKENS 7 CLUB members en

“NORTH VANCOUVER, 710 West 14th. St.,980-0551

Downtown Vancouver, 5th. ‘Floor, the Say, 689-2115
* Burnaby, 7271 Gillay Ave., 430-8371
© Coquitlam, 2773 Samat tiwy., "464-1918
° Maple ge, 22188 Lougheed Hwy.,463-0067
Surry, 8066-120th. Street, §90- 8226
ingle:

» brics & deiprative accesso

photo Devid Cooper
TERRENCE Kelly and Gina Wikinson are mesmerizing in the Vancouver

Playhouse production of David Hare’s Skylight.

bdsvard leaves and, comeidentally, Tons crashes in to continue melding past and present.

Like Tons and Ryra’s relationship, nothing is quite as straightforward as it might seem in this
ply. Fruth moves, depending on the point of crew, and is Huminated i: brief shining moments. as
Why Teht trom a skehghe,

Both characters have moved trom their starting point: “Hons “common man” sun continues te
rise (cconormeally at feast ras his restaurant empire tlourishes while, in Tom's vicwy Kyra has
descended tron her middle-class university origins ro teaching immigrants in a London slum.

fe don’t want te reveal what happens to vot urge vou to go and see for yourself), but the play
hinges on whether Tom and Kyra will recapture what they lost and whether ‘Tom and Kyra's world:
views are reconcilable.

Phe east is fabulous, with Torrence Kelly’s Tom a standout, It’s been sometime since Kelly has
been on stage locally and, based on this performance, that’s a shame.

If PF mention Kelly first, E found Wilkinson no less moving in a performance that is her best to
dare. HE have a quibble it is only that her occasional bursts of anger seemed vocally strangled.

Haig Sutherland's angular, awkward Edward is also a gem of'a performance. It’s a small but eru-
cial role, for without it Kyra is nor validated and there is no way forward into the sun.

Congratulations to all and to Dow for his seamless pacing.

See Hamlet pane 27

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