We’re big fans of the Donmar Warehouse here – we’ve seen countless fantastic productions at this intimate space in Covent Garden over the years. The layout of the venue means no one is more than four rows away from the action, affording audiences an up-close glimpse of some major talent. Earlier this week we went to check out their latest production, Dealer’s Choice, which boasts Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones) and Brendan Coyle (Downton Abbey) amongst its stars.
So what’s it all about? As the name would suggest, this is a play largely focused on gambling – poker, specifically. Over the course of an evening we watch a group of six men – from differing backgrounds and with varying motives – play cards in the basement of a London restaurant, all believing they have what it takes to come out on top, with each man able to decide the rules of the game when it’s their turn to deal. It is, of course, about much more than that: this is a case study of masculinity, of the performance of being ‘a man’, of bravado, fragile egos and underlying insecurities.
It presents an interesting snapshot in time – this play premiered 30 years ago, and it’s hard to imagine a show like this being written now. It’s very specifically about heterosexual men: there are no women in this play, nor are there queer people, although women are referred to in derogatory terms and there are gay jokes. It serves as a stark reminder of how recent this sort of language and these sorts of behaviours were commonplace – thankfully these attitudes are called out more frequently in the 2020s, but it can make for quite unpleasant watching at times.
Whether or not you’ll enjoy Dealer’s Choice depends on how much you like being challenged by theatre. This production certainly gets a lot of things right – the acting is strong, there are a handful of very witty observations – and it’s an impressive study of toxic masculinity, exposing the bravado as a charade and revealing the various insecurities and weaknesses driving these performative acts. However, the ‘lads lads lads’ culture and the language used will be a recent memory for many queer people – for most of us it was normalised during our formative years – and sitting through two hours of it can make for an uncomfortable evening.
GAY TIMES gives Dealer’s Choice – 3/5
More information can be found here.
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