Dealer’s Choice

by Patrick Marber
Loft Theatre Company, June 2006
Director: Tom O’Connor

Coinciding as it did with the beginnings of a summer heatwave and the opening matches of the 2006 World Cup, this production played to generally poor houses – a great pity because it’s one of the best things I’ve been in for a while. I played Sweeney, the outwardly confident chef of a London restaurant where the owner and staff play together in a weekly poker school. The fake tattoo, shaved head and goatee were all part of my attempt at looking hard – probably influenced by the fact that Ray Winstone played the role in the original production.

Michael Barker and Matt Cox played the waiters Mugsy and Frankie.

In the poker game, Sweeney’s character crumbles when he loses the £50 he needs to take his estranged five-year-old daughter out for the day. Left to right: Matt Cox (Frankie), Michael Barker (Mugsy in his "lucky poker shirt"), Rob Wootton (restaurant owner Stephen), me and Maurice Smith as the outsider Ash.