Dealer's Choice at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Dealer's Choice by Patrick Marber was first performed in 1995 and as Made In Northampton's latest show, the subject matter is as relevant today as it was then. Maybe more so, just perhaps the development of poker playing having moved from the downstairs or backroom establishment into the more "socially acceptable" online fraternity.

Dealer's Choice has six, all male, very distinct characters and the cast are all exemplary in their individual roles. Be it the glorious wide boy chancer Mugsy (Cary Crankson, who has the best character of the play), or the chef Sweeney (Carl Prekopp, sounding more than a touch like Del Boy) and onto Ash (Ian Burfield, the late addition to the poker table), these are all characters rounded and individual that you have probably met yourself at sometime.

The production is honest to its original time setting, with prices of public conveniences and heavy duty mobile phones the order of the day. Presumably the original script is untouched, but as previously said, this never feels dated.

The first act takes place in a split stage of two rooms; the kitchen and the dining room, and is clearly and very cleverly switched by sharp sounds and light switching. A very impressive touch.

The second act gets down to the nitty gritty of the poker game itself, and while this does have a touch of poker lingo, this never gets in the way of the storytelling. The games themselves are well played out and are quite superb, the choreographed sped-up game plays are a joy. I would be fascinated to know whether the cards were all correctly named on the table, those in the circle and beyond will surely know.

The two sets were clear and clean, but with actually quite a lot of stuff to manage in the kitchen part. While the cellar of the second act was exactly everything you would imagine of a dingy set-up illicit poker venue. Music use, while minimal, was as sharp and solid as the dialogue.

The performance I got to see, thanks to a competition win (I have a paid ticket for Thursday) was the final preview, however everything was clean and sorted ahead of the big guest night performance tonight and its a play that I would heartily recommend if you can cope with the dark humour and strong language that this play brings to the table. I am all in!

Review of The Rocky Horror Show at Milton Keynes Theatre

Richard O’Brien’s anarchic, surreal, and often incomprehensible musical, The Rocky Horror Show , has captivated audiences for over fifty years now. With this new tour, it feels as fresh and unpredictable as if it had just emerged from O’Brien's vivid imagination yesterday. While another review might seem unnecessary given the countless dressed-up fans who fill every theatre it visits, let’s go ahead and write one anyway. The Rocky Horror Show follows the adventures of Brad and Janet, a newly engaged couple. On a dark and stormy November evening, they run into car trouble and seek refuge at a mysterious castle reminiscent of Frankenstein’s. There, they encounter the eccentric handyman Riff-Raff, the outrageous scientist Dr. Frank N. Furter, and a host of other bizarre characters. What unfolds is a science fiction B-movie narrative that is at times coherent and at other times bewildering — yet somehow, that doesn’t seem to matter. I first saw The Rocky Horror Show in 2019 and exper...

Review of The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband at The Playhouse Theatre, Northampton

During the interval of The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband , last weeks production at The Playhouse Theatre Northampton, I got involved in a conversation between a couple sitting next to me. The lady was very much of the opinion that the play was a comedy, while the gentleman, had formed one that it was a tragedy. They were joking of course in the conversation, but it did highlight the differences that Debbie Isitt's dark comedy might have between the sexes. And also now perhaps the passing of time. When this was written in the nineties, Isitt's play was a forthright feminist play, heralding the championing over of the ladies over the man. One the ex-wife plotting to cook him, the other, the new lover, potentially already very tired of him after just three years. The husband, Kenneth (Jem Clack) elopes initially in pursuit of sex with Laura (Diane Wyman), after his nineteen years of marriage with Hilary (Corinna Leeder) has become tired and passionless. Then later, he elopes ...

Review of Dial M For Mayhem! at Royal & Derngate (Royal), Northampton

Middle Ground Theatre has been creating unique and intrepid adventures for the stage since the late eighties, and with Dial M For Mayhem! , they take those experiences and bring to the stage a brand new play within a play now arriving for a week run at Royal & Derngate. Written by Margaret May Hobbs and directed by Michael Lunney, Dial M For Mayhem! has much to admire. Still, sadly, for every good joke, amusing set piece and chaotic moment, there are too many periods of flatness, stilted sequences and, especially during the first act, too many slow scenes which either tread the same old ground or bring nothing new to the proceedings and then fail to flow into the next leaving it often disjointed. The cast does their very best, though, and the characters they bring to the stage are entertaining and perfect for this farcical play, but they lack depth despite the script trying desperately at times to give them one. The attempt to create character also comes at the expense of the farc...

A Small Mind At The Theatre

Search This Blog