Bill Nighy to appear on Broadway once again in “Skylight”

Bill Nighy (Rufus Scrimgeour) will be appearing on Broadway in a revival of Sir David Hare’s 1995 play Skylight. Nighy will be playing the lead role alongside Carey Mulligan, a role he has played twice already. You may know Carey Mulligan for her portrayal of Daisy in The Great Gatsby or as Jean in Inside Llewyn Davis.

Skylight takes place in one room over the course of one night. Nighy plays a 50-year-old, rich restaurant owner named Tom Sergeant. Mulligan plays a 30-something-year-old woman, Kyra Hollis, who is a low income school teacher. Before she became a school teacher, she worked for Tom at one of his restaurants. During this time Kyra and Tom had a six-year affair, ending when Tom’s wife finds out. The two characters do not speak to each other or see each other for three years until Tom seeks Kyra out after his wife dies. This is where the play begins. We watch Kyra and Tom discuss politics and their personal relationship.

On the play, Nighy said that

it’s done the holy grail, really, to perfectly integrate the central fact of our lives — what do you do about the fact that half the world has too much and the rest not enough? But the play is as much about two people in a room as all that.

This is Nighy’s third time playing Tom Sergeant, though he remembers his first time well.

I remember thinking, ‘it’s impossible. I can’t do it; it’s a terrible mistake. That’s what I have instead of a process [-] a hostile parallel universe in which I’m going to be fired. And I’m not kidding or anything.

While this isn’t Nighy’s first time playing this role, it is his first time with Mulligan as Kyra Hollis. You can read an in-depth interview between Nighy and Mulligan here.

Skylight premiers March 13 and will run for 13 weeks at the John Golden Theater in New York. Tickets are available here.

Are you going to see Skylight? Let us know in the comments!