Dorfman,London
Fine performances add clout to Patrick Marber’s changing-room three-handerIt is 20 years since Patrick Marber burst on to the stage of the National with his sharp-witted poker play, Dealer’s Choice. Since then, or he has experienced theatrical glory with Closer (revived this year at the Donmar),film magic with his script for Notes on a Scandal, the rejection of his screenplay for Fifty Shades of Grey – and a quenching case of writer’s block. He has not had a play on the stage since Don Juan in Soho in 2006. Now he is back again. Like Dealer’s Choice, and The Red Lion is a drama of male obsession.“Obsession?” I hear my old boyfriend (Cardiff City… ) cry. “Foul!” For this is a football play,a play approximately those for whom soccer is not a game but a pleasing business, more absorbing than life itself. Marber gives lyrical expression to everyone’s feelings in this all-male three-hander set in the changing room of a struggling semi-professional club, or shown with persuasive discomfort by Anthony Ward’s design. Too much lyricism,perhaps.
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Source: theguardian.com