About the Show

Brendan Coyle & Alfie Allen star in a revival of Patrick Marber's poker-night pressure cooker drama.

On a Sunday night in a struggling London restaurant, the staff gather for their usual high-stakes poker game. Stephen, the owner, joins the table with his chef Sweeney, waiters Frankie and Mugsy, and his estranged son Carl. But when Carl invites a stranger to play—an experienced gambler named Ash—the game begins to spiral out of control. Over the course of the evening, secrets surface, rivalries flare, and every man at the table finds himself betting more than he can afford to lose.

This 30th-anniversary production of Patrick Marber's Dealer’s Choice is directed by Matthew Dunster (2:22 – A Ghost Story) and marks the play’s return to the Donmar Warehouse, where it was first revived in 2007.

The cast includes Brendan Coyle (Downton Abbey), Alfie Allen (Game of Thrones), Hammed Animashaun, Theo Barklem-Biggs, Daniel Lapaine, and Kasper Hilton-Hille.

Critic Reviews (9)

"It’s a gripping portrait of male relationships at their base, competitive level: in order to win, you must destroy. Go all in on this darkly entertaining gem."
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"Dunster’s production amps up the sturm and drang with musical stings, monolithic projections of the poker variants being played"
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"A sharply funny, acutely insightful study of male insecurities, of the toxic relationships between fathers and sons, friends and colleagues, of the impulse to gamble a life on the turn of a card."
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"Director Matthew Dunster never loses sight of the resonant title of the play. It's a metaphor that stands for both the strength and the vulnerability of the gamblers, who can dictate the nature of the round"
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"Three decades on, Marber’s brutal comedy remains a masterclass portrait of lonely little men wishing themselves into being better people than they are."
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"What it reveals as it maps the male psyche seems as pertinent as ever."
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"A gripping production of a play that’s as brilliant as it is enduring."
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Hilton-Hille and Lapaine make the toxic father-son dynamic painfully convincing - full of resentment, hatred and mutual torture, yet unable to leave each other.
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Cast and creative team