Entrepreneurial Kiss
This production is one of the most professional pieces of student drama I have seen. In lieu of the talents and experience of both director and actors however, this is no more than should be expected. James Rogan, the director, has already entered the history books. At eighteen, he became Britain's youngest ever film director with the feature film Dead Bolt Dead, which recently had its British premiere at the Raindance film festival in Leicester Square. The play's three actors Alastair Sooke, Richard Goulding and Rosamund Pike are all well known on the Oxford stage, and Pike has recently been arousing interest as one of television's most exiting young actresses, appearing in A Rather English Marriage and Wives and Daughters for the BBC.
Skylight - the David Hare play that was first shown at the National Theatre in 1995 and ran on Broadway and the West End for much of the rest of the last decade - marks Rogan's Oxford debut. It does not disappoint.
The play centres on the relationship between Tom (Goulding) and his former mistress and employee Kyra (Pike). In the three years that have passed between the end of their affair and their first "reunion", which we see, much has happened. Tom's wife Alice has died of cancer and Kyra has thoroughly distanced herself from Tom's world (he is a successful entrepreneur) and become a committed teacher in a difficult comprehensive school. The play manages to combine the intimacy of the personal relationship with the political conflict of two different worldviews. The literally kitchen sink aspect of the former aspect is represented convincingly, leaving the audience with the feeling that they are voyeurs. The two actors work together in such a natural way and there is enough thought behind their actions to enable the realistically clichéd lines to hold nuance. Pike's emotionally-charged reserve also acts as the perfect foil for Goulding's portrayal of "excessive masculinity".
The passion, though, does not just lie in their love, but also in their jobs and beliefs. Tom stresses his belief system and his words almost become a mantra - "I'm an entrepreneur; I'm a doer" - and his cause is sympathetically represented. His feeling of the necessity of creation - of money, of jobs, of a business - is powerful. He does, in fact, admit to loving his business. Equally strong, though, is Kyra's pursuit of her teaching career despite the temptations of Tom's world and the charms of "toast in napkins".
This conflict holds particular resonance for Oxford students deciding on how best to lead their own lives. This is given added emphasis by Tom's son Edward (Sooke) who appears at the beginning and the end of the play, never with his father. Edward, in his gap year, is making choices about his own worldview. His envy of Kyra's world is rightly seen as a sensitive emotion not the whine of a spoilt child. Sooke's portrayal of Edward is a good mix of teenage gaucheness ("How am I doing?") with expression of powerful emotions. In this he is helped by his excellent stage presence.
If the quality of the acting and the potency of the issues were not enough to make you see this play, the set also looks like it might be a stunner. Don't miss.
Max Stiff
9th Nov 2000