Dealer's Choice (play)

Dealer's Choice
Dealer's Choice Play Cover
Written by	Patrick Marber
Characters	Carl Sweeney Ash Frankie Stephen Mugsy (Tony)
Date premiered	February 1995
Original language	English
Subject	Gambling and the consequences of it
Setting	A small restaurant in London

Dealer's Choice is a play by Patrick Marber first performed at the Royal National Theatre (Cottesloe) in London in February 1995 where it won both the 1995 Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy and the Writers' Guild Award for Best West End Play.

It is set in a restaurant in London in the mid-1990s. The action takes place over three acts. The third act centres on a game of poker.

The original cast included Nicholas Day, Nigel Lindsay, Phil Daniels, Tom Georgeson, David Bark-Jones and Ray Winstone.

Stephen owns a small restaurant which employs Sweeney (the cook), Mugsy and Frankie (waiters). A third waiter, Tony, is mentioned but never appears in the play. Every Sunday after closing, the staff and Stephen's son, Carl, play a poker game in the basement.

At the start of the play, we learn Mugsy is attempting to buy a public toilet in Mile End and convert it into a restaurant. Mugsy doesn't have the money - he lost £3,000 at poker to Stephen several weeks ago. Mugsy is hoping to convince Carl to get the money from his father, and plans to dump Carl once the restaurant is open.

Carl has his own problems. He has a severe gambling addiction, which he believes he has kept hidden from his father. He currently owes £4,000 to Ash, his poker mentor, who, in turn, owes £10,000 to other gamblers. In the second act, Ash comes to the restaurant to get his money. Carl, having again lost the money he had saved, convinces Ash to join the poker game under cover of being a former schoolteacher. The staff, believing Ash's story, accept his inclusion; the absence of Tony has left a seat available.