Here’s a tag team made in West End theater heaven. In the acclaimed revival of David Hare’s class-conscious Skylight (1995), one of England’s most respected actors, Bill Nighy (The Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel) butts heads and other body parts against one of England’s youngest, ascendant actresses, Carey Mulligan (The Great Gatsby, Oscar-nominated for An Education). This 2014 revival, which lit up the London critics, was subsequently filmed and broadcast live last July as part of National Theatre’s outreach series, National Theatre Live. That successful outing is being followed by a few encore screenings, including two at Sundance Cinemas Houston.
Knighted in 1998, Sir David (The Hours, Plenty, The Reader), one of England’s most distinguished playwrights, pits a Thatcherite-1-percenter restaurateur named Tom (Nighy) against a socially conscious schoolteacher Kyra (Mulligan). The two are former lovers and the newly widowed Tom has come to woo her back. Are his conservative views enough of a roadblock to recently enlightened Kyra, or does the flame still burn? Can either of them change? A spaghetti bolognese dinner, cooked onstage, draws the two dangerously close, like Lady and the Tramp. There’s plenty of spice in the sauce, and in the play.
12:30 p.m. Saturday; 7:15 p.m. Mondays. Through November 3. Sundance Cinemas Houston, 510 Texas. For information, call 713-223-3456 or visit sundancecinemas.com. $20.
Sat., Oct. 25, 12:30 p.m.; Mon., Oct. 27, 7:15 p.m., 2014
This article appears in Oct 23-29, 2014.
