Skylight: Live Theatre at its best on the big screen

Filmed live in July for National Theatre Live at the 700-seater Wyndham's Theatre in London, this is without a doubt the best seat in the house, where you can experience the true spectacle of this sumptuous production (designs are by Bob Crowley with lighting by Natasha Katz), and also share intimate moments centre stage during the performance.

Nothing can ever compare to the magnitude (and privilege) of sharing the drama with Bill Nighy and Carey Mulligan; you can feel their breath on you as they immerse themselves in their characters.

During tearful moments you want to hug the actors, during moments of outrage you fear their wrath, and when Mulligan cooks a real meal during performance, you want to share it with her. And when the audience applaud Mulligan's sensational power speech in the play, you will be doing the same.

Freezing, dingy flat

The setting is schoolteacher Kyra Hollis' (Carey Mulligan) freezing, dingy Kensall Rise flat - the open-plan design by Crowley gives us the bleak context by showing the council block opposite.

The design is ingenious, showing us a life beyond the live action on stage; we can sense people living in the flats that look out onto the apartment where the play takes place, constantly peeking through their curtains - they are looking at what we are seeing and the feeling of being constantly watched deepens the voyeuristic thrill of live theatre and breaks the intimacy of looking at film from your seat in the cinema.

The action ignites during one wintry evening when Hollis receives two visitors in succession: Edward (spot-on Matthew Beard), the gauche, well-meaning son of her former lover Tom, and Tom himself (Bill Nighy) a thriving Thatcherite restaurateur with whom she had a six-year affair before his wife found out.

Now widowed and a mass of unresolved guilt and grief, Tom has turned up, three years on, to conduct some unfinished business. But, meanwhile, Kyra has built a new life for herself as a dedicated teacher in a rundown comprehensive.

Full-blooded ideological jousting

The actors beautifully trace the arc from the thaw of verbal sparring as Kyra cooks Spaghetti Bolognese, through rekindled passion to the final bout of full-blooded ideological jousting in which one's sympathies are swung one way and another.

Stephen Daldry's direction is superb, perfectly capturing the frustrated angst that imprisons the characters, as well as their heartbreaking passion - Daldry will always be remembered for his direction of the film The Hours (with a screenplay written by David Hare), as well as the sell-out West End production of The Audience with Helen Mirren, which was also broadcast to cinemas by National Theatre Live in 2013, including sold-out performances here in South Africa.

A major bonus for theatre lovers is an interview with David Hare after the 20-minute interval. It is insightful, humorous and allows us to get to share a few minutes with the author of 29 full-length plays for the stage, 17 of which have enjoyed productions at the National Theatre, including Plenty, Racing Demon, Murmuring Judges, The Absence of War, Amy's View, The Power of Yes, Pravda (with Howard Brenton) and Stuff Happens. His many screenplays for film and television include: The Hours, The Reader, Page Eight, Turks & Caicos, and Salting the Battlefield.

Nighy, who has performed in Hare's Pravda, Map of the World, and the Broadway mounting of The Vertical Hour, previously starred in Skylight when he took over the role from Michael Gambon when it was first staged in the Cottesloe at the National Theatre in 1995, directed by Richard Eyre, and winning the Olivier Award for Best New Play, before transferring to the West End and later to Broadway.

A remarkable performance

Nighy's many film credits include: Love Actually, Wild Target, Pirate Radio, Valkyrie, AKA, Notes on a Scandal, Underworld, The Constant Gardner, Lawless Heart, Still Crazy, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, About Time and delivers a remarkable performance in the forthcoming film, Pride.

Carey Mulligan and Matthew Beard who played alongside each other in the film An Education are both making their West End debuts.

Mulligan made her Broadway debut in The Seagull. She earned an Oscar nod for An Education and also appeared in Inside Llewellyn Davis, The Great Gatsby, Drive, Never Let Me Go, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, Brothers, Pride and Prejudice, My Boy Jack, When Did You Last See Your Father? and Public Enemies.

What is truly remarkable about this screening of Skylight is that although it is film that you are watching, it's a real experience that leaves you speechless, and powerless, as the impact of its drama, comedy and insight into what makes people tick, will last a lifetime.

Do whatever you have to see Skylight. It releases exclusively on South African screens on Saturday, 15 November, for four screenings only - on 15, 19 and 20 November at 7.30pm and on 16 November at 2.30pm - at Cinema Nouveau theatres in Joburg, Pretoria, Durban, and Cape Town. Bookings are now open. The running time of this production is 2hrs 45mins, including a 20-minute interval.

For more on Skylight and other NT Live screenings, go to www.writingstudio.co.za