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Synopsis By day Mugsy, Frankie, Sweeney, their boss Stephen and his son Carl work together in a swanky restaurant. The banter flows and the jokes come thick and fast - but after the last bill is paid, the pressure's on. Down in the basement their weekly poker school is no laughing matter. Originally performed at the Royal National Theatre in 1995, Dealer's Choice was considered to be an outstanding debut and it went on to win the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy and the Writer's Guild Award for Best Play. Contains scenes and language that may offend.
Patrick Marber’s award-winning debut play about men and poker, Dealer's Choice, was revived this week (opened 3 October, previews from 27 September) at Southwark’s Menier Chocolate Factory in a production directed by actor-director, and fellow card player, Samuel West (See News, 1 Jun 2007). Its limited season continues until 17 November.
Dealer's Choice is set after-hours in a restaurant where six men meet each week to play cards. Tonight the stakes are higher than usual – but winning has its price. In a night of psychological violence and bluff, the players stay up late and bust each other out.
The play premiered at the National’s Cottesloe Theatre in 1995, directed by Marber, and later transferred to the West End’s Vaudeville Theatre and won the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy. Best known at that point as a stand-up comedian and TV sketch writer, Marber partly based his playwriting debut on his own experiences with gambling addiction. Two years later, he confirmed his reputation with Closer. The plays Howard Katz, After Miss Julie and Don Juan in Soho also followed, as did the screenplay of Notes on a Scandal, for which Marber was Oscar-nominated.
First night critics dealt an even hand with a round of four-star reviews, welcoming back Marber’s play which, they noted, has been given extra relevance today thanks to the popularity of online poker. According to some, West’s “gripping” and “explosively acted” production even improves on Marber’s original, giving the play a “new lease of life”. There were individual plaudits for everyone in the six-strong, all-male cast, with special appreciation given to Stephen Wight’s “blissfully funny” performance as the chirpily delusional waiter Mugsy.
Michael Coveney on Whatsonstage.com (four stars) - “The spine of the play is the relationship between Stephen and his hapless, hopeless son, Carl (fresh-faced Samuel Barnett from The History Boys, just slightly miscast) who has run up some debts and faces the music when the game is joined by a stony-faced outsider Ash (the wonderfully lugubrious, spaniel-like Roger Lloyd Pack), a professional who has come to collect. The risk and insolence of the game is caught in a superb sequence when Ash’s pair of threes beats absolutely nothing … The proceedings are brilliantly directed by West on a gleaming kitchen set by Tom Piper, ravishingly lit by Neil Austin, that draws us in then sits us down in the quiet of the after-hours restaurant. The plot twists are as hard to follow as the cut of the cards, but you go with the flow because, whatever the deal, you’re in safe hands.”
Michael Billington in the Guardian (four stars) – “First seen 12 years ago, Patrick Marber's dramatic debut is chiefly remembered as the play about poker. But, as Samuel West's superbly acted revival reminds us, it is principally a play about fathers and sons and the emotional deficiencies of men prey to ungovernable obsession … The play combines a quicksilver wit with an intimate understanding of the psychological flaws of even the part-time poker addict. The joy of West's production, however, lies in the quality of the performances. Malcolm Sinclair's Stephen admirably combines dry irony with a palpable sense of paternal loss while Samuel Barnett as his wastrel son seems like an updated version of Shakespeare's Prince Hal torn between rival fathers. The play's emotional tension is relieved by a blissfully funny performance from Stephen Wight as Mugsy the waiter … Wight captures perfectly the charming ineptitude of a character who declares, ‘I've risen from the ashes like the proverbial dodo’. And Roger Lloyd Pack as Ash conveys the fugitive despair of the professional gambler while giving fresh meaning to the term ‘poker-faced’. Highly recommended.”
Charles Spencer in the Daily Telegraph (five stars) - “I watched this revival of Patrick Marber's debut play with a mixture of exhilaration and regret. Exhilaration because, 12 years on from its premiere, his drama of gambling, male rivalry, and the taste of dust and ashes in your mouth at dawn still feels bang on the money. Regret because Marber hasn't lived up to his spectacular early promise … In Dealer's Choice, the dramatist brilliantly lays bare the camaraderie, fierce joshing and rancorous rivalry that so often comprise male relationships. He also nails the key point about compulsive gamblers: that for them the real attraction isn't the big win, however much they might believe it is. No, what really turns them on is the prospect of loss and disaster. All addictions are, at root, a kind of death wish, whether conscious or not … Samuel West, a poker player himself, directs a compelling production that captures the excitement of the game, Marber's often hilarious humour and the drama's sudden disconcerting glimpses of despair. Malcolm Sinclair conveys both the control-freakery and the hidden vulnerability of the restaurateur who hosts the game, while Samuel Barnett is painfully raw and wounded as his full-time loser of a son … Stephen Wight turns in an irresistible comic performance as the aptly named Mugsy … Roger Lloyd Pack, meanwhile, is superb as a hatchet-faced, hardened pro who retains a small sliver of humanity in his heart.”
Nicholas de Jongh in the Evening Standard (four stars) – “Even people like me, who know nothing about poker or gambling, will be fascinated by Patrick Marber's Dealer's Choice. West's gripping production of this psychological comedy that made the playwright's name in 1995 makes you forcefully aware that Marber's real interest is in showing how compulsive-addictive behaviour exerts a destructive impact upon close, personal relationships … That competitive streak branded in too many males goads the players to treat life as an irresistible gambling spree and reveals how nothing but debts and poker unite father and son. Malcolm Sinclair's extraordinary, commanding performance as Stephen, with its elements of aloofness and inscrutability, sorrow and loneliness, conveys the pathos of a father who recognises his own role in his son's downfall.”
Quentin Letts in the Daily Mail (three stars) – “Patrick Marber’s poker play has been given a new lease of life. This is partly down to the boom in internet gambling and the growth of poker as a sport … What makes Marber’s play hum is the characters, who are themselves a pack of cards … Clever as this is, it also comprises a bitterly cold vision of a man’s world, maintained by poker-faced posturing. Emotionally, it is an Arctic tundra. This makes the play easier to appreciate than to love, even though Samuel West’s explosively acted production trump’s Marber’s 1995 original – not least thanks to Tom Piper’s ingenious, chic set.”
Benedict Nightingale in The Times (four stars) – “If you thought that the play which introduced us to Patrick Marber in 1995 was little more than a trial run for his Closer two years later - and I confess I did – Samuel West’s superb revival at the Menier should disabuse you. Dealer's Choice is very funny, but beneath the humour you sense much the same darkness. If Closer was a near-definitive study of sexual greed and ruthlessness, the earlier play is equally sharp about our need for danger, destruction and, sometimes, self-destruction. Act I is preparation for the weekly poker contest that Malcolm Sinclair’s cool, suave Stephen lays on for his staff in his London restaurant; Act II consists of card combat that’s both grippingly real and unpretentiously metaphoric. Even if, like me, you think that a royal flush is something that happens to princesses during the menopause, you’ll be able to follow the ups and downs of a game that isn’t just a game … There’s plenty here about father-son friction, friendship and betrayal, compulsion and addiction, and men for whom the high life is competing with other men.”
Julie Carpenter in Daily Express (four stars) – “More than a decade on, this new production brings out (the play’s) relevance, its laugh-out-loud comedy and its acrid bite, confirming why it was such an attention-grabbing debut. If anything it has probably gained a greater resonance and a wider audience, given the huge surge in poker’s popularity and the emergence of online gambling which has gained its fair share of casualties … Marber’s skill lies in clinically dissecting the players’ motivations and compulsions. It is a hilarious and at times devastating analysis of the destructiveness inherent in the gambler’s psyche … Impressively actively, atmospherically lit and given tight direction by Samuel West, the first half is great comedy, while the second is tense power play tinged with disillusionment … Marber has dealt a fiercely good night out.”
Samuel West’s brilliant revival of Patrick Marber’s poker play Dealer's Choice has now moved from the Menier Chocolate Factory to the larger of the Trafalgar Studios and has, if anything, improved as a result.
I am no great fan of this auditorium (where there is no great fan), but it suits play and production to perfection here. You can look right down the throat of the play, right into the restaurant, where Malcolm Sinclair as the owner is sitting at a table fiddling with paperwork. Behind him, in the inner kitchen, the chefs are chopping away against a reflective, gleaming back wall.
The Menier cast is intact: Sinclair as Stephen with Samuel Barnett as his debt-ridden son; Roger Lloyd Pack as the silent professional who has come to collect; Stephen Wight as the winning loser Mugsy (now an award-winning loser Mugsy, having been named Outstanding Newcomer by the Evening Standard); Jay Simpson and Ross Boatman as staff members with their own set of fantasies and problems.
The hypnotic rhythm of the play moves from the set-up to the game itself – “bingo for brain surgeons” – thrillingly joined as an almost sacred rite of chips and cards, bluffs and calls, risks and outbursts. I’d forgotten how funny is the first act simultaneous double row, but not how cleverly Marber threads the comic lunacy of Mugsy’s toilet conversion adventure on the Mile End Road through the dialogue. A real treat of writing and acting.
- Michael Coveney
NOTE: The following FOUR-STAR review dates from October 2007 and this production’s original run at the Menier Chocolate Factory.
When Patrick Marber’s gripping poker play Dealer's Choice opened at the National Theatre in 1995, the card game was, as an entertaining programme note by Anthony Holden reminds us, a fringe hobby indulged in by one or two people one knew and a whole cast of low-life elsewhere.
Marber himself was an addict at university, hence the play, but poker is now mainstream entertainment on television and internet alike. As someone whose card-playing skills extend to the odd game of whist or cribbage, I’m obviously in a sad minority. Not only Holden is hooked (has been for years), but so is this revival’s director, Samuel West, and the Menier’s artistic director, David Babani, who has produced the show.
The exhilarating promise of Marber’s writing debut was followed two years later with its confirmation in Closer, the archetypal stylish “relationships” play of the Nineties. Although Marber’s output has been steady rather than torrential, everything he does is accomplished with wit and assurance. That confidence and swagger is apparent in this marvellous evening.
Echoing David Mamet’s Glengarry Glen Ross in its enclosed male world, setting up the sport then living with the consequences, we spend the first act in Stephen’s restaurant kitchen and the second round at the green baize table. Stephen (glacially pent up and dominating Malcolm Sinclair) and his employees play a game every Monday night.
The spine of the play is the relationship between Stephen and his hapless, hopeless son, Carl (fresh-faced Samuel Barnett from The History Boys, just slightly miscast) who has run up some debts and faces the music when the game is joined by a stony-faced outsider Ash (the wonderfully lugubrious, spaniel-like Roger Lloyd Pack), a professional who has come to collect. The risk and insolence of the game is caught in a superb sequence when Ash’s pair of threes beats absolutely nothing.
The kitchen staff comprises a couple of waiters and a chef (played first time out in Marber’s own production by Nigel Lindsay, Phil Daniels and Ray Winstone): the ebullient fantasist Mugsy, a loser most winningly played by Stephen Wight, harbouring dreams of opening his own eaterie in a converted toilet on the Mile End Road; Frankie (Jay Simpson), a comic demonstration of how two-bit players might taste the big time; and the chef Sweeney (Ross Boatman – yet another poker player in real life) who has troubles at home that won’t be solved here.
The proceedings are brilliantly directed by West on a gleaming kitchen set by Tom Piper, ravishingly lit by Neil Austin, that draws us in then sits us down in the quiet of the after-hours restaurant. The plot twists are as hard to follow as the cut of the cards, but you go with the flow because, whatever the deal, you’re in safe hands.
I must be from planet zog as I am not as convinced by this play as others here seem to be. The father son relationship is so poorly written it is barely a sketch. Mugsy is a lovely comic character, and well performed by Stepehn Wight, but that's about it. Where does it take us? From the final scene I suspect we are meant to see the sins of the father etc, etc, but come on? There was some talent on that stage tonight, Roger Lloyd Pack; Malcolm Sinclair; etc; but I felt it was wasted. The Americans do this sort of thing, on film and TV, so much better and with greater regularity. An overhyped play not worthy of a revival and the attention of this important venue. Come on Mernier there must be something better out there deserving of your attention! - rds
08 Nov 07
Fantastic production, brilliantly acted in a lovely intimate venue. See it at the Menier before it transfers to the West End and you have to pay twice the price to sit at the back of the balcony. - A.C.
29 Oct 07
Can the Menier do no wrong? Sam West's terrific revival fits this space like a glove. He finds every once of tension and every morsel of humour in the play. Tom Piper's setting brilliantly creates both the restaurant and its cellar. The ensemble is absolutely faultless with each of the six actors perfectly inhabiting his role. I know it hasn't been changed, but the play seems to have matured and in this space and this production seems even better than the Cottesloe premiere 12 years ago. - Gareth James
29 Oct 07
I saw this play first time round and didn't appreciate then just how brilliantly observed and beautifully written this play is.
I love theatre which makes you believe the characters are real and makes you care about them. For that you need a great script, great directing and great acting. This production has all these in spades.
Samuel West's production is brilliantly staged at every level and is without doubt the best thing I've seen on stage this year and perhaps for longer which is a big compliment given how much theatre I see.
The acting is exemplary. Ross Boatman and Jay Simpson as Sweeney and Frankie have wonderful rapport and a deep affection which makes you want them to be happy and achieve their dreams, Sam Barnett creates a damaged Carl who seems to be becoming another version of his father, addicted and unable to accept it. Roger Lloyd Pack gives a powerful performance of fear laced with a little compassion as Ash. Malcolm Sinclair as Stephen is a caring yet out of control gambler who doesn't realise his addiction but is full of compassion for his son Carl and for his staff. There is a moment in the play where Stephen and Ash lock gazes and get a real sense of the other. It's spine tingling stuff.
All the acting is of the highest quality and it seems a little unfair to single one actor out but I must as Stephen Wight as Mugsy is one of the best acting performances I've seen. He brings Mugsy to life to that extent that you feel you know him, he's your friend who you just will to win through because you really care for him. He's very funny and yet an incredbly sad young man but he never gives up. When he wins £7, you feel so happy for him.
I didn't want this play to end.
This is award winning stuff at every level. As soon as I got home I booked to see it again.
The must see theatre event of 2007! - Paul Wallis
13 Oct 07
In ‘Dealer’s Choice’, the ferociously-talented Patrick Marber unveils a profound study of compulsion; questioning why we base decisions – that on the surface should be entirely rational – on emotion, desire and hope.
Meanwhile, the darker aspects of the male psyche are revealed amongst the testosterone-charged wise-cracks and put-downs around the poker table, as Marber questions the sincerity of relationships, between employees and employers; colleagues and friends; and most poignantly of all - fathers and sons.
Samuel West’s production in the intimacy of the Menier Chocolate Factory is superb, the design and setting coolly reflecting the action, set in a London restaurant owned by Stephen (Malcolm Sinclair) a middle-aged, financially-successful man of calculated emotional distance, fastidious habits and sardonic wit. In fact, the cast, without exception, give first-class performances: Ross Boatman is completely believable as Sweeney the stressed chef, whose bitter, drunken singing ''I haven't seen a card all night'' (to the tune of ''I Could Have Danced All Night'')delivered with increasing viciousness cleaves to the memory, long after the final curtain. Jay Simpson is sound as Frankie the cock-sure waiter and would-be professional poker player. Stephen Wight’s Mugsy, with his enthusiastically-irritating lucky ‘demon’ diamonds and his lucky Hawaiian poker shirt and £30 rayon-silk tie, deserves special mention. Wight succeeds in squeezing every last ounce of laughter from the dialogue, capturing his relentless jokes and gullible optimism, and masking the sad reality of his being one of life’s losers. Roger Lloyd Pack’s Ash is controlled and assured – a performance laced with sufficient menace and intrigue to question the exact nature of the mentoring relationship between him and young Carl (Samuel Barnett).
Stephen sees poker as a school for ''self-discipline''; but for prodigal son Carl, whose guilty secret is a gambling addiction with debts of over £4000, the game is ''about guts, about passion'' - which also neatly sums up Sam Barnett’s performance. Known already to London Theatre audiences of Alan Bennett’s The History Boys, as the original Posner, Barnett acts with a breathtaking, emotional intensity. Whilst his detached coldness towards his father is at all times believable; it is the later vulnerability and insecurity which is heart-rending to watch.
Samuel West’s production is superb – a royal flush. Yes, expect dozens of other corny card-game metaphors from the professional critics, meanwhile I’ll lay my cards on the table and declare it top trumps…
- Neil M
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