Dealer's Choice, Salisbury Playhouse
IN THE basement of a tired London restaurant, six small-time gamblers meet every week to play poker.
Sweeney the chef and waiters Frankie and Mugsy risk money they can ill-afford with restaurant owner Stephen and his debt-ridden son Carl. But the stakes are raised when a professional gambler joins their game.
The intimacy of the Salberg studio at Salisbury Playhouse works well for this show where actors prepare and cook food on stage and the audience can see poker played at close-quarters.
Fast action and strong, almost staccato deliveries make this play rocket along but this is a rather clichd script and disappointingly predictable plot for such an accomplished playwright as Patrick Marber.
It offered me nothing more than a hackneyed soap episode available every night at home on TV.
Is it worth seeing?
Bet or pass.
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