Theatre review: Dealer's Choice

Dealer's Choice is a play I've got a bit of history with: I saw the original 1995 production at what was then called the Cottesloe at the National, and was so impressed with it that I chose one of its scenes to workshop as part of my university directing course. I also caught the Menier's 2007 revival, and that clearly made an impact too, as it turns out my memory of who originally played the characters was a mix of those two casts. So it was hard to resist Matthew Dunster's 30th anniversary production at the Donald and Margot Warehouse, now coming to it as a play I'm in many ways very familiar with, but at the same time haven't encountered in 18 years. Patrick Marber's debut play takes place in a small, barely-afloat restaurant owned and run by Stephen (Daniel Lapaine,) with the help of an all-male skeleton staff who join him every Sunday night after closing for their weekly poker game.

Theatre review: That Face

Launching her career as the watersports fetishist's favourite playwright, Polly Stenham's That Face wasn't just famous for Matt Smith's Astonishing Coup de Théâtre^TM but also for the fact that it was written when she was 19. Exposing the extreme dysfunction of the sort of rich, upper-middle class people who would describe themselves as merely "comfortable," it begins with Mia (Ruby Stokes) getting sent home from boarding school for taking part in a hazing ritual - a ritual she decided to spice up a bit by slipping the 13-year-old victim with Valium she stole from her mother's stash, putting the girl in hospital. Mia's father is returning from Hong Kong to bribe the school into not expelling her, but his imminent arrival means he'll also check in on her mother.