DEALER'S CHOICE. To 14 June.
Glasgow
DEALER'S CHOICE
by Patrick Marber
Tron Theatre To 14 June 2003 Tue-Sat 8pm
Runs 2hr 30min
TICKETS: 0141 552 4267
Review: Timothy Ramsden 31 May
No compelling case for shifting Marber's whizzing view of compulsion up the M74.Premiered at London's National Theatre, Dealer's Choice instantly showed Patrick Marber as far more than a comic writer. Peppered with hilarious one-liners, the play's also tight in structure and characterisation: a compulsive, up-to-the-minute evening.
Now Scotland follows on from English productions, including one in Wales. For Angus Jackson's production at Clwyd Theatre Cymru didn't relocate the action as director Zinnie Harris has for her Glasgow-set Scottish premiere.
The move's taken its toll: this production runs some 35 minutes longer than in Clwyd, something serious in a fast-action, taut-nerve drama. Resulting, of course, in slackening. Partly it's down to Scottish wit, more considered than instant-delivery streetwise London Exocets.
But the set doesn't help. Action veers between a restaurant - where owner Stephen sits with the accounts, then customer Ash, refusing all late-night invites to leave and let the after-hours staff poker star - and kitchen (or, here, some ill-defined working area where little happens, thereby cutting further any sense of propulsion).
These rooms are raised high at split-levels, slowing communication, and leaving the hardly-used front centre pit to be cleared for act-two poker, where Ash joins in to recover a secret gambling debt from Stephen's weak-minded son. Strength and weakness of will is what the play, like poker (or life itself), is about. Sometimes it's comic – as with Mugsy's hope of setting up in business – and this is handled quite well.
But there's also a tense relationship drama, focused on father and son. Tam Dean Burn gives too much away in his concern for Carl. He's a strong actor but needs strong direction to rein in his expressive force. Here, he's given his head too much, and the sense of trial-of-strength over Carl between Stephen and Stewart Porter's Ash – a good portrayal, but lacking the sense of driven urgency behind his mission for the night – is muffled.
Like Marber's next play Closer, this one's essential viewing from the late 20th century zeitgeist. But Scottish theatre should be confident enough not to need to provide local-colour surfacing for every production. And to have the judgement to work out when it's apt and when – as here – it detracts from the script.
Mugsy: Colin McCredie
Sweeney: Paul Blair
Stephen: Tam Dean Burn
Frankie: Steven Cartwright
Carl: Tommy Mullins
Ash: Stewart Porter
Director: Zinnie Harris
Designer: Fiona Watt
Lighting: Malcolm Rogan
Sound: John Scott
2003-06-04 13:33:01