Tag Archives: Kasper Hilton-Hille

DEALER’S CHOICE

★★★

Donmar Warehouse

DEALER’S CHOICE

Donmar Warehouse

★★★

“The cast is uniformly strong, bringing definition to Marber’s testosterone-fuelled ensemble”

Three decades after its debut, Patrick Marber’s Dealer’s Choice returns to the London stage in a muscular revival at the Donmar Warehouse. Mostly set in the sweaty basement of a mediocre restaurant, this brutal portrait of male compulsions and laddish bravado still cuts deep, even as it reminds us just how entrenched and ugly blokey culture was in the mid-90s.

Written before Marber’s later success with Closer, Dealer’s Choice remains arguably his most vivid piece in a canon of hits: a searing, funny, and ultimately hollow study of men addicted not just to gambling, but to delusion.

Director Matthew Dunster’s production taps into the play’s timelessness, capturing the dreams, denials, and desperate self-mythologising that haven’t changed much even as mobile phones have turned from bricks to razor blades.

The cast is uniformly strong, bringing definition to Marber’s testosterone-fuelled ensemble. Daniel Lapaine is chillingly precise as Stephen, the restaurant owner whose demand for control barely masks his own compulsions. His bullying interactions with his son Carl – played with a raw sadness by Kasper Hilton-Hille – form the play’s anguished emotional core, even if their conflict at times feels contrived.

Alfie Allen flutters about as pallid Frankie, the wide-boy waiter whose cocky swagger only thinly veils a deeper frustration. He captures the double purpose of the bantz – as weapon and shield. Theo Barklem-Biggs, meanwhile, is the most impressive of the lot, bringing tightly wound fury to Sweeney, the chef desperate to save face – and some money – for a day out with his daughter.

The late arrival of Brendan Coyle’s Ash, a taciturn force with his own dark motives, shifts the game’s stakes dramatically. Coyle’s performance is an embodiment of seething menace: his mere presence alters the dynamic, exposing the men’s bravado for the fragile veneer it is.

But it is Hammed Animashaun’s turn as Mugsy that lingers longest. Mugsy, the hapless, endlessly optimistic dreamer who hopes to open a restaurant in a disused public lavatory in Bow – not inconceivable these days – is the heart of the play. Animashaun, a blissfully funny actor, manages to balance clownish exuberance with bruised humanity, making Mugsy’s pipe dreams oddly touching. He alone seems fully rounded in a cast of men who appear only to perform for each other.

Dunster’s production leans into the claustrophobia of the setting, with Moi Tran’s set design ingeniously lifting the restaurant’s kitchen and dining room skywards to reveal the grim basement beneath, the card table rotating throughout so we see every face. Some knowledge of poker helps in the occasionally confusing second act.

If the production occasionally overstates the father-son melodrama, and its feral language is jarring, it never loses sight of Marber’s essential insight: that in this world, the biggest gamble isn’t with money but with self-worth. Dealer’s Choice reminds us that laddish culture, for all its swagger, often masks desperation and loneliness. The red flag of the ’90s has become a fully blown crisis in the intervening decades



DEALER’S CHOICE

Donmar Warehouse

Reviewed on 29th April 2025

by Giles Broadbent

Photography by Helen Murray

 

 


 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

BACKSTROKE | ★★★ | February 2025
NATASHA, PIERRE & THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 | ★★★★★ | December 2024
SKELETON CREW | ★★★★ | July 2024
THE HUMAN BODY | ★★★ | February 2024
LOVE AND OTHER ACTS OF VIOLENCE | ★★★★ | October 2021

 

 

DEALER’S CHOICE

DEALER’S CHOICE

DEALER’S CHOICE

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

★★★★

Alexandra Palace Theatre

THE GLASS MENAGERIE at Alexandra Palace Theatre

★★★★

“haunting and dynamic”

Against the backdrop of arrested decay in the Alexandra Palace theatre blares a rotating neon sign reading “PARADISE”. The shiny circular stage is decorated around the edges with the eponymous glass menagerie and later with added candles and flowers (Rosanna Vize). As the scenes progress the sign turns like a clock hand; the threat of lost time looming over the characters. Tennessee William’s memory play is set in the 1930s, in this production, the cast adopt modern costumes and props to illuminating effect as the family drama is grounded in a more recent era. The scenes are underscored with eery instrumentals (Giles Thomas) and characters make use of two microphones on stands to emphasis the overwhelming nature of their conversations as the family suffocate each other with words. Echoing the turn of the sign, the company move around cyclically (movement Anthony Missen) winding on and off the stage as they orbit each other. With every entrance and exit comes the risk of breaking a glass animal, implying the precarious circumstances of the family.

The Wingfield family consist of a resentful writer and narrator Tom (Kasper Hilton-Hille), his histrionic mother Amanda (Geraldine Somerville) and anxiety-ridden sister Laura (Natalie Kimmerling). The play follows the family navigating financial strain, familial roles and desperation to secure stability in their lives. Amanda places her hope in the prospect of getting Laura married after she drops out of a business course due to her anxiety. Tom loses himself by writing poems and going to the movies and argues with his mother over money and craving independence. Jim O’Conner (Zacchaeus Kayode) joins the play more in Act Two as a colleague of Tom and former high school crush of Laura.

Somerville depicts Amanda with a multi-layered performance with humour and dignity, never adopting a shrill tone or overly manic demeanour. She is berating and materialistic, but cares deeply for Laura and Tom and attempts to pre-empt and solve problems. She is overbearing but also earnestly helps Laura pursue independence and happiness. She worries reasonably about Tom’s nightly escapes but ultimately has outbursts that alienate her children. Kimmerling presents Laura as a kind ostracised young woman, dogged by onsets of panic and insecurity. Her journey shows her sociable abilities and emotional intelligence, as well as her fragility and internal torment. Her performance is beautifully moving and the relationship between the siblings is touching. Watching her get so close to happiness but not quite achieve it is sad, but what makes the story tragic is her inability to emotionally recover from the setbacks in her life. Hilton-Hille captures Tom’s adolescent frustration and solemn reflection as he recounts his life. The growing conflict with his mother are balanced with his concern for Laura. In Act Two Kayode portrays the perfect man in Jim; empathic and charismatic, but also nostalgic and pathologising. He finds Laura intriguing and intelligent, but flawed. He offers her advice and ruminates on resilience; “everybody’s got problems”. Director Atri Banerjee bring outs the fun and joy of their would-be romance with dancing and music, leaving the audience wanting Laura to believe in love and more.

The family dynamic is captured through movement as they weave around the glowing “PARADISE” focal point above accompanied by dramatic backlights and dimly lit candles (Lee Curran). The drama’s intensity is heightened by the large performance space, creating a sense of loneliness and magnitude, with characters entering and exiting into the upstage void. The direction is slick, focusing on the intention of the conversations rather than fixating on the setting. This production of Glass Menagerie is haunting and dynamic, with each turn of the fluorescent sign pushing the family to the brink.


THE GLASS MENAGERIE at Alexandra Palace Theatre

Reviewed on 23rd May 2024

by Jessica Potts

Photography by Marc Brenner

 

 

 

Previously reviewed at this venue:

A CHRISTMAS CAROL: A GHOST STORY | ★★★★ | November 2023
BUGSY MALONE | ★★★★★ | December 2022
TREASON THE MUSICAL | ★★★ | November 2023

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

THE GLASS MENAGERIE

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