Richard Bean's adaptation of David Mamet's 1987 film is the latest attempt to revive the stage thriller. Lindsay Posner's production delivers all the guilty pleasures of the genre. Though why the pleasure of watching
con artists and cardsharps ply their trade should induce guilt is beyond me. Something has gone wrong if theatre is not first a form of entertainment. Tick that box, then by all means offer a moral.
House of Games' moral involves questioning the motives behind seemingly blameless human behaviour, as the heroine, psychoanalyst Dr Margaret Ford (Nancy Carroll), gets embroiled in Chicago's criminal underbelly. Dr Ford has travelled to a gambling den to plead for the debt of her patient, a compulsive gambler, to be wiped out. And that, much like last week's thriller revival, Deathtrap, is about as much as I can tell you without giving away the plot. But also, much like Deathtrap, the plot is only occasionally smart enough to stay a step ahead of the audience. Unlike the victims of these hustlers, the first con inoculates us from the second, third and the fourth. Although we do not know for sure where each deception is coming from, we know it is coming and so reserve our emotional commitment to a play that serially deceives. It is a question of trust. And that is the problem with this kind of stage thriller.
Much of the evening's satisfaction, therefore, is derived in retrospect - working out which moments were genuine and which were part of the con. Out of the crew of tricksters, Michael Landes as the romantic bait is excellent, as is Nancy Carroll as the icy academic, thawed and excited by an edgy underworld. Those who understand why the house rules of a poker joint would forbid showing a bluffing hand unless it is called will probably get most out of this production. I do, and I love it.
(Tel: 020 7359 4404)