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Playing Cards 1: SPADES

Roundhouse, West End
From: Thursday, 7th February 2013
To: Saturday, 2 March 2013

Our Review: starstarstarstar Your Reviews: starstar

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Synopsis

Playing Cards 1:SPADES is the first in a planned series of four plays, each shaped around one suit in a deck of cards. This first part explores the theme of war and is set in the desert city of Las Vegas at the onset of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Our Review: starstarstarstar

Michael Coveney - 12 February 2013

Like a Ken Dodd show, Robert Lepage's new epic is a feast of fun and a challenge to the kidneys, running at two and a half hours without a break and daring the audience to give in before the end.

Being Lepage of course, the fun side of things is a little muted, even though this strange interwoven narrative is set in glittering, garish Las Vegas and there is an underpinning element of gambling, show girls and weird sex in hotel bedrooms.

Spades is the first in a series of four plays, each one conceived around one suit in a deck of cards. And each show is developed in what Lepage calls concentric circles, his brief handed down from the "360 degree network" of round theatres across the world, from the US to Denmark, France, Italy, Croatia, Spain and the Netherlands.

So, starting with the image of a card table, the figure of a genie-like card sharp, and the idea that, in the military world, "spades" is a substitute word for "s...

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Latest User Review

Adam - 14 February 2013: starstarstar

Saw it tonight and all ran to plan. But then I purposely didn't book a preview, as that's exactly what they are designed for - testing! The staging is ingenious and brilliantly creative. As you'd expect from Lepage. But the narrative needs some work. It's all very watchable but equally very meaningless. The actors are brilliant. You can hardly believe there are only 6 actors in the whole play. Definitely worth seeing for the staging alone. But don't expect to witness a challenging play. Oh and the Roundhouse rocks. Sh*t happens. Get over it....

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