Capturing the latent aggression in male relationships, Dealers Choice; even twelve years later Patrick Marber’s first play still thrills audiences with the story of five men gambling far more than they can afford to lose.
Set in a London restaurant where its owner, the highly restrained Stephen (a brilliantly understated Malcolm Sinclair) holds weekly poker sessions with his staff. The first half introduces the players across the evening; Stephen’s jumpy son Carl who has struggled with gambling in the past, Sweeney, the Chef who is attempting to get out of the game in order to have enough left in the bank (both financially and physically) to take his daughter out the next day. Stealing the show is the perennially optimistic waiter Mugsy (Stephen Wright), blundering around for support to turn a public convenience into an elegant restaurant of his own.
Rounding out the cast is the lecherous Frankie (Jay Simpson) and Ash, a man who Carl owes money and wants the chance to win it back.
The first half sets up what is at stake in the game with the game in the second cruelly exposing the apparent winners for mugs, and those who seem like losers are winning, with more control of the game and their fortunes.
The game devolves into a painfully raw exposition of male relationships, their pride, and inability to articulate how they feel centering around the heartbreaking relationship between Father and Son, both unwilling or unable to breech the gap that has developed between them.
Frankie tells Mugsy to ‘play the man not the cards’, Dealer’s Choice goes beyond the money to show us what’s really at stake.
Dealers Choice at the Chocolate Factory until November 17
http://www.menierchocolatefactory.com
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