Samuel West’s production of Patrick Marber’s Dealer’s Choice, currently playing at the Menier Chocolate Factory, transfers to the West End’s Trafalgar Studio 1 on 6 December (press night 11 December).
Marber’s play about poker premiered at the National in 1995, directed by the playwright. This new Menier Chocolate Factory production is the first major revival since then. It opened at the Southwark venue on 3 October with a cast comprising Samuel Barnett (Carl), Ross Boatman (Sweeney), Roger Lloyd Pack (Ash), Jay Simpson (Frankie), Malcolm Sinclair (Stephen) and Stephen Wight (Mugsy), all of whom will transfer with the play to Trafalgar Studios.
Dealer’s Choice is set around a regular poker game between six men. It is supposed to be a friendly game, but this week the stakes are high and winning has its price. In a night of psychological violence and bluff, the men stay up late and bust each other out.
Marber’s other plays include Closer, Howard Katz, After Miss Julie and Don Juan In Soho. His screenplays include the adaptation of his own Closer and last year’s Notes On A Scandal.
Director West is the former artistic director of Sheffield Theatres and has acting credits including Betrayal at the Donmar Warehouse earlier this year.
Dealer’s Choice is the latest Chocolate Factory production to transfer into the West End, following recent successes with the musicals Sunday In The Park With George and Little Shop Of Horrors. It is booking at Trafalgar Studio 1 until 29 March 2008.
CB