No Easy Way Out

SKylight yeilds rewards for those who can pay attention

by Mark Cofta

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Are British theater audiences smarter than their American counterparts? Fairer to say they're better trained. The test comes early in the second act of David Hare's Skylight, enjoying a terrific local première by Lantern Theater Co. When Tom reassures his ex-mistress Kyra that "I don't think one fuck and everything's solved," many in last Saturday's audience seemed disappointed.

American film, television and theater condition us to believe the opposite. When we encounter serious debate — in personal relationships, business deals, presidential campaigns — our fingers itch for the remote. We like that one-fuck solution.

That's my take, anyway, on why many tuned out during Skylight — even while some of us leaned in, fascinated by Hare's skillful blend of thorny social themes and an intensely personal relationship at a crossroads.

Hare gradually reveals the tumultuous past of Kyra (Genevieve Perrier) and Tom (Peter DeLaurier), once lovers for more than six years, but separated for the past three, ever since his late wife, Alice, discovered their affair. That Kyra's 20 years younger doesn't matter as much as their divergent life paths — she teaches in one impoverished London neighborhood and lives in another, while Tom's a blow-dried restaurant entrepreneur — and their unhealed wounds over their breakup.

This emotional and philosophical action unfolds on Dirk Durossette's splendidly realistic rendition of an old, cold flat with frost on the windows and faded, stained wallpaper, lit sensitively by David O'Connor, with subtly meaningful costumes by Millie Hiibel. The physical production mirrors Tom and Kyra's conflict: Is her existence impoverished and demeaning, or frugal and cozy?

Their conflicting social consciences — he sees lower-class struggle as something to despise and escape, while she discovers nobility and satisfaction in helping society's dregs — entwine with their past and present attraction, and their visions of the future. They get the sex out of the way early, their genuine intimacy revealed in Perrier and DeLaurier's engrossingly sincere performances. Possible solutions aren't easy, for them or for us; these intensely connected actors, directed by Dan Kern, ensure that Hare's carefully balanced struggle plays out suspensefully.

Visits from Tom's 18-year-old son Edward (Ryan Jones) frame the action, which Kern might better serve by not letting the scene before Edward's second arrival feel like the play's ending. By the actual conclusion, those willing to devote patient attention to these complex people are rewarded as live theater does best: with much to ponder.

Skylight Through Feb. 24, Lantern Theater Co., 10th and Ludlow streets, 215-829-0395, lanterntheater.org.