House of Games

Richard Bean’s adaptation of David Mamet’s screenplay has the hallmarks one expects of Mamet – fast, raw dialogue, bitingly authentic characters – and the clever humour and pace one has learned to expect of Bean (One Man, Two Guvnors).  Set in a seedy poker club in Chicago, it’s all about a complicated gambling ‘hustle’. Dr Margaret Ford, a psychoanalyst, the author of a best-seller on compulsive behaviour, offers to help one of her patients settle his gambling debt. What she thinks is an academic study turns out to be a complex and dangerous con.

Louise Fischer, with her usual flair, achieves a tight knit ensemble production that is provocative and entertaining. Her direction sets and sustains the pace and punch required of the genre. The characters are established quickly. The dialogue and the action are fast despite the many scene changes between office and gambling ‘den’ (set design by John Cervenka). Though these are carefully choreographed so as to be as quick and efficient as possible, they do become a little distracting and predictable.

The pace of the action is set from the very first scene by Charles Jones as Billy Hahn, a compulsive gambler who is in the middle of a session with Ford. Jones establishes the hostility of the character immediately. He is aggressive, belligerent, threatening. He paces. He invades her personal space. Her calming words are ineffective … until she offers to go to the poker club, The House of Games, to question his debt.

Scene change to the poker club where Margaret meets Mike and his ‘team’ and is taken in, firstly by a little ‘sting’, then by Mike himself, both physically and academically. She agrees to be part of a bigger sting … even to selecting a ‘mark’… as research for a new book. And that’s about as much of the plot as it’s possible to give away!

Katherine Shearer portrays a very strong and plausible Ford. As the analyst, she is sharp and discerning; as the woman behind the academic she is witty and flirtatious, but still discerningly. At the club she watches every movement carefully, judges every suggestion astutely, always appears in control.

Mike is played with suave panache by Ben Brock. This is a ‘gem’ of a role and Brock makes the most of every smooth move, every carefully planned ploy. He is charming, persuasive, and as sharp and observant as a conman has to be.

His off-siders are the usual characters required for a successful ‘hustle’ team. They must work together well, just as the actors who play them must work as a tight ensemble. Benjamin Vickers is the bikie barman, Bobby, not quite as bright as the others, but the muscle that’s there when needed. Joey (Colin McCarlie) is the banker, wary, sharp, watchful and the calming influence when things get a bit touchy.

Mark Langham plays George, the ‘actor’ of the gang who plays the deceptive ‘characters’ that hoodwink the real ‘mark’. Langham obviously relishes this role, using his comedic timing and physicality to create characters that are over-stated stereotypes of the typical fall guy.

Cheyne Fynn and Hannah Day play the ‘marks’ PJ and Trudi and Rebecca Levy plays Margaret’s publishing agent, Carla. Cindy Wang, in her very first production, plays Margaret’s cheeky receptionist Edna, as well as being assistant stage manager to Doulas Cairns.

The play is tightly written and this production finds all the allusion of the plot.

Carol Wimmer

Photos © Bob Seary.