Opening Corpus Playroom’s Spring Season is David Hare’s Skylight, a play which traces the story of two ex-lovers who are brought back together after years apart. The pair tackle their shared pasts whilst waiting to see whether they can rediscover the love they once shared.

Emma Ansell caught up with the cast to ask them about their experience of the play:

 

What drew you to Skylight?

Amelia Oakley (Director): I saw it at The National with Carey Mulligan and I absolutely loved it. For the first year of Cambridge I wasn't really thinking about plays that I could put on, and then I realised - I'd seen the perfect play to put on at Corpus. It just completely suits the place; and it’s very muted, and kind of claustrophobic and isolated. I prefer working with smaller plays where you can really focus in on the actors.

Georgie Henley: I actually saw the same production when it transferred to New York, and I was really jet lagged so I kept falling asleep through it! And then when I was reading the audition extracts I was like 'Oh my goodness, this is a really good bit, when did this happen. I didn't see this!’ 

Tom Taplin: There are a lot of David Hare plays on at the moment, and a couple of friends recommended him to me. There's something so satisfying about getting to do just really naturalistic acting. This play offers a challenge because it's such a character-based play and there's only three of us.

 

What kind of impression do you want to leave on your audience?

Amelia: Uncertainty. I want them to leave like 'I think I know what happened, and I have an idea of where the future may lie for these people, but I'm not sure - and that’s okay.'

Amy Malone (Assistant Director): I think part of the beauty of this play is that everyone who is going to come and see it will have a different interpretation of what they think would happen to the characters after the play's ended. When we were sat down as a cast in the first few rehearsals and we were asking the actors 'What do you think happens to tom and Kira?' and there were some quite different responses. And those responses have evolved and changed throughout the rehearsal process as well.

Will Bishop: There are certain things the play throws out that will be so close to the bone for some people, both in the politics it discusses, and the issues that it throws up of grief and guilt in relationships. People are going to walk out feeling rattled and it's going to spark a lot of debate between the audience over who was right and who was wrong, and the right way to approach the themes and politics of the play. The wonderful thing about the play is it poses all of these questions but doesn't give you certain answers. These two characters are both these huge forces of nature and are as opinionated and eloquent as each other. 

Tom: I want the audience to recognise it as something that is very real; they can recognise, if not the situation and the content, then at least the vocal patterns of real humans rather than dramatic people on the stage.

 

David Hare is well known for his beautiful writing. Without giving too much away, can you tell me any of your favourite lines from the play?

Georgie: ‘You were the person I feel in love with and as it happened you arrived with a wife.’

Will: One line which I really like, which is so unpoetic but really quite telling of my character, is when I'm just looking over Kira's shoulder as she cooks dinner and I say 'Are you putting the chilli in first?'

Tom: There's something that David Hare captures in his naturalistic speech. 'Once they're dead I find they keep changing; you think you've got a hold of them and it's like you say 'Oh I see, so that's what she was like...' People don't go around making big speeches, they stumble through when they’re trying to express themselves, and I think he captures that.

 

Do you have any techniques for combating opening night nerves?

Amelia: You just have to trust that everyone's going to do their job right.

Will: I guess it's just about using those nerves to give you the energy to go out on stage and have fun with it - and having fun is key. Being present in the room and always thinking 'What am I doing now? What's happening now?' which doesn't sound like the best technique to combat nerves, but it's using the nerves, it's welcoming the nerves.

Georgie: I'm not actually that nervous when I get on the stage - it's always the anticipation beforehand, and there's just nothing you can do about that. It's like when you're going into an exam and you're so nervous, and you sit down and you see the question and you either think 'There's no way I can pass this exam’ or ‘Okay, I can deal with this.’ When you get on there it's much better than it will seem.

Tom: I tend to think that nerves are generally a positive thing. If I ever do a show and I'm not nervous before I think it puts me off a little bit actually. Nerves can always heighten emotion, and they can be channeled.