DEALER'S CHOICE. To 30 March.

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DEALER'S CHOICE
by Patrick Marber

Emlyn Williams Theatre, Clwyd Theatr Cymru To 30 March 2002
Runs 1hr 55min One interval

TICKETS 01352 755114
Review Timothy Ramsden 23 March

Accomplished revival displays Marber's ability to build a compulsive drama from addiction and risk.Status and obsession flick through Marber's gambling drama with the sharp edge of the card pack ruling this restaurant staff's lives. Poker in its many forms, late-night in the basement, is the secret desire owner Stephen and his kitchen men wait to satisfy when the last customer's gone.

Except tonight, when the last customer, Ash, is joining in. He's there to win the £4,000 Stephen's son Carl owes him. The (all-male) staff's dreams come to light in the first act upstairs. Rob Jarvis's impulsively unthinking Mugsy is after a loan to set up his own joint in a converted public convenience down the Mile End Road. Steffan Rhodri's Sweeney just wants the will to keep £50 back from the betting to take his child out, while Dermot Kerrigan's thin-tempered Frankie remains unknowable in his lack of ambition.

There's energy in all these performances, Jarvis loudly unreflective with every momentary need and joy alternately screwing up and throwing open his facial features, Rhodri seeming a hard-working soul of conscience until the moment he calls for the money he'd put in safe-keeping so he can stay in, if not ahead of, the game. And Kerrigan presents a swift, lean presence.

Steven Meo's Carl is a thorough loser, gambling behind his father's back, his weak-will giving fragile support to features that show desperation behind apparent smiling optimism, with a voice forever sliding into beseech mode or spluttering in useless prevarications.

Tony Guilfoyle's a fine actor but his approach to Stephen doesn't quite come off. The man who runs the show, he has to control his potentially unreliable workers, while he reads his son like a 52-pack all face up. Guilfoyle shows understanding; but he has a world-weariness instead of snap command – though this neatly fits the final moment when, alone, he turns to his computer to record not the restaurant's business but the long night's gambling fortunes.

There is, however, a performance of restrained authority from Sean Baker as the visitor who disrupts the cosy clan of winners and losers with the watchful self-containment of the dedicated professional.

Mugsy: Rob Jarvis
Sweeney: Steffan Rhodri
Stephen: Tony Guilfoyle
Frankie: Dermot Kerrigan
Carl: Steven Meo
Ash: Sean Baker

Director: Angus Jackson
Designer: David Farley
Lighting: Hartley T.A. Kemp
Sound: Matthew Williams
Music: Alex Gallafent
Dialect Coach: Terry Besson

2002-03-25 06:11:01