Two of Nighy's most acclaimed stage performances were in National Theatre productions. As Bernard Nightingale, an unscrupulous university don, in Tom Stoppard's "Arcadia" (1993), he engaged in witty exchanges with Felicity Kendal, who played the role of Hannah Jarvis, an author. He played a consultant psychiatrist in Joe Penhall's "Blue/Orange" (2000), for which he won an Olivier Award nomination for Best Actor, and which transferred to the West End at the Duchess Theatre the following year. In 1997, Nighy starred as Tom Sergeant, a restaurant entrepreneur, in David Hare's "Skylight", which had premiered in 1995 and was moved to the Vaudeville Theatre.