Patrick Marber's Dealer's Choice offers a hilarious glimpse into the moving happenings that take place in a small London restaurant. In an environment where gambling is the focal point of six men's lives and hopes, Marber explores human relationships, dependencies and duties, as the poker table becomes the playing field for many a shameful emotion, a tension, and an accusation.

Ormrod's production is well-polished, well-cast and well-paced. Marber's sharp dialogue is staged with panache and the play is appropriately sparky and energetic. Credit for this is due, in great part, to the exceptional performance of Sam Thomas. His portrayal of Mugsy is captivating; he endows the character with a genuine sense of vacancy and displays impeccable comic timing, which leaves the audience hooting with laughter. Above all, Thomas seems to really relish the part, encouraging the audience to take equal pleasure in his performance. As Ash, Will Fysh exudes a striking aura of menace and impressively conveys a sense of internal emotion beneath his composed exterior. Sam Sampson's use of understatement is commendable in the role of Sweeny and Will Pooley is convincingly disgruntled and awkward as the teenage Carl. Special mention must also go to the set, which is an ambitious recreation of a naturalist environment and contributes to the authenticity Ormrod admires so much about the play. A sensitive use of space and awareness of balance is notable on the part of the director.

Dealer's Choice carries the audience from moments of serious tension to witty relief, as the tragic and the comic combine. This poignant mixture is exemplified in Mugsy's ambition to convert a public toilet into a restaurant all of his own, an aspiration which makes him the object of much ridicule and yet to which he is tragically attached. In a way, this character's crippling stupidity makes him the most tragic figure of the play, unable even to register the pitiful nature of his dead-end existence and his addiction to gambling, or more specifically, his addiction to losing. That said, is this blissful lack of awareness perhaps to be envied?

In the opening half of the play, comedy dominates, swallowing all moments of tragedy that should happen to surface, without undermining their impact. A particularly remarkable example of this is the climax of two simultaneous arguments, which is interrupted and dissolved by Mugsy's farcical fumblings with a mop; he breaks the tension beautifully, transforming a peak of emotion into a peak of humour. However, as the play progresses, the comic overtones gradually give way to the rise of the tragic; at the final showdown around the poker table, even Mugsy's playful idiosyncrasies fail to detract from the haunting sense of inevitable disillusionment. It is excruciating to watch, as player after player is shattered by failure and storms out, one after the other, in an eruption of frustration and fury. The real tragedy lies in the perpetuation of the situation; Marber reminds of this in his closing line: "Same time next week?"

Indeed, it seems a shame that the play will not be gracing the stage of the Old Fire Station next week as well! Something of a romp with a gloomy undercurrent, Dealer's Choice offers a side-splitting and thought-provoking evening's entertainment. Definitely worth a flutter.