Matthew Dunster Archives - The Play Podcast

096 – Dealer’s Choice by Patrick Marber

by Douglas Schatz | May 29, 2025 | Podcast Episodes

The-company-of-DEALER_S-CHOICE---Donmar---photo-by-Helen-Murray1_Standard

The cast of Dealer’s Choice
Donmar Warehouse, London
May 2025
Photo by Helen Murray

096 – Dealer’s Choice by Patrick Marber

The curtain rises on a London restaurant. It is a Sunday evening in 1995, and the restaurant is not yet open for that night’s business. The proprietor and his team are keyed up, not because of the imminent service, but because every Sunday after they close they convene in the basement for their weekly poker game. It is a game where the men – the players are all men – seek to boost their coffers, as well as their relative status and personal prospects. But poker is a cruel mistress, where despite their determined confidence most come away losing more often than they win, and the tenuous hopes that they each nurse of escaping the cycle of disappointment in their lives are battered back again.

This is Patrick Marber’s first play, Dealer’s Choice, which premiered at the National Theatre thirty years ago in February 1995, and was an immediate critical success, winning the Evening Standard Award for Best Comedy. Marber went on to write Closer two years later, which we covered on the podcast back in episode 51: Listen here.

As we record this episode a cracking new production of Dealer’s Choice is playing at the Donmar Warehouse here in London, with an outstanding cast directed by Matthew Dunster, and I am delighted and honoured that Matthew joins me to talk about Marber’s play.

Loyal listeners will recall that Matthew appeared in the podcast back in episode 75 when we talked about Harold Pinter’s The Homecoming: Listen here.

Matthew Dunster

Matthew Dunster has written or directed more than 70 shows, including productions at the RSC, the National Theatre, the Royal Exchange Manchester, the Royal Court, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and Shakespeare’s Globe theatre, as well as directing in the West End, on Broadway and internationally. His credits include three of Martin McDonagh’s plays including Hangmen in London and New York, and The Pillowman in the West End. His West End credits also include 2:22 A Ghost Story and Shirley Valentine. Later in 2025 he will direct Conor McPherson’s stage adaptation of The Hunger Games.

Recommended Play

Matthew recommended This Wide Night by Chloe Moss.

Become a Patron!

Since I launched The Play Podcast in April 2020, I have managed to eschew any form of advertising or sponsorship, and I would like to continue to produce the podcast without doing so. I therefore invite you to help me to continue to make the podcast by becoming a Patron. Additional benefits available to Patrons include Footnotes on the plays covered in the podcast, as well as early access to The Play Review. For details click here Thank you very much for listening and for your support. Douglas

The Texts

If you are interested in buying the play text or other related books, we’d be delighted if you choose to purchase them from our selected partners Bookshop.org and Blackwell’s. Not only will you be supporting independent booksellers, we will also earn a small commission on every book you purchase, which helps to keep the podcast going. Click on the cover to buy from our chosen partner. Thank you.

115 – The Dance of Death by August Strindberg

Oct 6, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death is set in a remote army base on the coast of Sweden, where an army captain and his wife are trapped together in an unhappy marriage. The captain, bitter at his lack of promotion, and his wife, frustrated at having been forced to give up her career as an actress, occupy their empty hours tearing into each other in a brutal dance of mutual cruelty.

Strindberg’s scorching portrait of marital strife was written in 1900, but has had a lasting influence. Arthur Miller dubbed Strindberg, “the mad inventor of modern theatre”, and echoes of his unflinching dissection of marital discord can be seen in the plays of Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, and John Osborne.

Sir Richard Eyre adapted and directed a wonderful production of Dance of Death at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames earlier this year, and I am delighted that Sir Richard joins me in this episode to guide us through Strindberg’s blistering onslaught on marriage.

114 – Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare

Sep 22, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost is described on the title page in the first publication of its text in 1598 as “A Pleasant Conceited Comedie.” I imagine that the epithets were intended to highlight the play’s courtly aesthetic, its frothy merry-go-round of courtship, and above all perhaps, its ostentatiously intricate word play. For it is a play rich in the love and perils of language.

I am joined to assay Shakespeare’s conceited comedy by the Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames, Tom Littler. In the summer of 2026 Tom adapted and directed a magical double bill of Shakespeare, producing Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing in repertory, and staging them both ‘en plein air’.

113 – Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

Aug 24, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tom Stoppard’s 1993 play, Arcadia, is viewed by many as his finest play, renowned for the breadth of its intellectual interrogations and its formal invention. The play is a structural masterpiece of ideas, as well as a teasing detective story, joyous comedy, and emotionally rich exploration of love and loss.

As we record this episode a wonderful new production of Arcadia is playing at the Duke of York’s theatre in London’s West End, following its acclaimed run at the Old Vic theatre earlier this year. I am delighted to share the challenge and the pleasure of exploring Stoppard’s dazzling drama with the director of the new production, Carrie Cracknell.

075 – The Homecoming, by Harold Pinter

by Douglas Schatz | Jan 26, 2024 | Podcast Episodes

Lisa Diveney as Ruth and Joe Cole as Lenny
Young Vic Theatre
December 2023
Photo by Dean Chalkley

075 – The Homecoming, by Harold Pinter

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

It is 1965 in a house in North London lived in by a father, two of his three grown-up sons and his brother. This all-male household is a fractious one, their combative instincts unchecked without the ameliorating influence of a mother. But their long-established routines and rivalries are about to be dramatically disrupted by the unannounced arrival of the third son, who has been living in America and not been back for some years. He brings with him his wife, a woman the family did not know existed, and whose provocative presence will bring unexpected changes to all of their lives.

This is Harold Pinter’s disturbing exploration of toxic masculinity and sexual maneuvering, The Homecoming. The play’s portrait of misogyny, and even more disturbing, the apparent female complicity, was shocking at the time it was written. Nearly 60 years on the sexual politics is if anything even more difficult to watch. So what was Pinter’s purpose in presenting such a provocative piece, and how do we process it in the post Me-Too age?

As we record this episode a new production of The Homecoming is currently playing at the Young Vic theatre in London. I am delighted to be joined by the show’s director, Matthew Dunster, who can help us answer those questions about Pinter’s challenging classic.

We covered another Pinter play, Betrayal, in episode 6 of the podcast:
06 – Betrayal, by Harold Pinter.

Matthew Dunster

Matthew Dunster is a director, actor and playwright, who over the past 15 years has directed more than 50 plays, including productions at the RSC, the Royal Exchange in Manchester, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and the Globe theatre, where he was Associate Director from 2015-2017.

He has had a special relationship with Martin McDonagh, having directed three of his plays including A Very Very Very Dark Matter, Hangmen at both the Royal Court and on Broadway, and most recently The Pillowman in the West End.

Matthew is also responsible for two of the West End’s recent hits, 2:22 – A Ghost Story and Shirley Valentine starring Sheridan Smith.

Recommended Play

Matthew recommended Attempts on her Life by Martin Crimp.

Become a Patron!

Since I launched The Play Podcast in April 2020, I have managed to eschew any form of advertising or sponsorship, and I would like to continue to produce the podcast without doing so. I therefore invite you to help me to continue to make the podcast by becoming a Patron.
Additional benefits available to Patrons include Footnotes on the plays covered in the podcast, as well as early access to The Play Review.

For details click here

Thank you very much for listening and for your support.
Douglas

The Texts

If you are interested in buying the play text or other related books, we’d be delighted if you choose to purchase them from our selected partners Bookshop.org and Blackwell’s. Not only will you be supporting independent booksellers, we will also earn a small commission on every book you purchase, which helps to keep the podcast going. Click on the cover to buy from our chosen partner. Thank you.

115 – The Dance of Death by August Strindberg

Oct 6, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

August Strindberg’s The Dance of Death is set in a remote army base on the coast of Sweden, where an army captain and his wife are trapped together in an unhappy marriage. The captain, bitter at his lack of promotion, and his wife, frustrated at having been forced to give up her career as an actress, occupy their empty hours tearing into each other in a brutal dance of mutual cruelty.

Strindberg’s scorching portrait of marital strife was written in 1900, but has had a lasting influence. Arthur Miller dubbed Strindberg, “the mad inventor of modern theatre”, and echoes of his unflinching dissection of marital discord can be seen in the plays of Edward Albee, Tennessee Williams, Eugene O’Neill, and John Osborne.

Sir Richard Eyre adapted and directed a wonderful production of Dance of Death at the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames earlier this year, and I am delighted that Sir Richard joins me in this episode to guide us through Strindberg’s blistering onslaught on marriage.

114 – Love’s Labour’s Lost by William Shakespeare

Sep 22, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

William Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost is described on the title page in the first publication of its text in 1598 as “A Pleasant Conceited Comedie.” I imagine that the epithets were intended to highlight the play’s courtly aesthetic, its frothy merry-go-round of courtship, and above all perhaps, its ostentatiously intricate word play. For it is a play rich in the love and perils of language.

I am joined to assay Shakespeare’s conceited comedy by the Artistic Director of the Orange Tree Theatre in Richmond upon Thames, Tom Littler. In the summer of 2026 Tom adapted and directed a magical double bill of Shakespeare, producing Love’s Labour’s Lost and Much Ado About Nothing in repertory, and staging them both ‘en plein air’.

113 – Arcadia by Tom Stoppard

Aug 24, 2026 | Podcast Episodes

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tom Stoppard’s 1993 play, Arcadia, is viewed by many as his finest play, renowned for the breadth of its intellectual interrogations and its formal invention. The play is a structural masterpiece of ideas, as well as a teasing detective story, joyous comedy, and emotionally rich exploration of love and loss.

As we record this episode a wonderful new production of Arcadia is playing at the Duke of York’s theatre in London’s West End, following its acclaimed run at the Old Vic theatre earlier this year. I am delighted to share the challenge and the pleasure of exploring Stoppard’s dazzling drama with the director of the new production, Carrie Cracknell.

Matthew Dunster

by Douglas Schatz | Jan 25, 2024 | Contributor

Matthew Dunster

Matthew Dunster is a director, actor and playwright, who has written or directed more than 70 plays, including productions at the National Theatre, the RSC, the Royal Exchange in Manchester, Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre and the Globe theatre, where he was Associate Director from 2015-2017.

He has had a special relationship with Martin McDonagh, having directed three of his plays including A Very Very Very Dark Matter, Hangmen at both the Royal Court and on Broadway, and most recently The Pillowman in the West End.

Matthew’s credits in the West End include 2:22 – A Ghost Story and Shirley Valentine starring Sheridan Smith. Most recently he directed the 30th anniversary production of Patrick Marber’s Dealer’s Choice at the Donmar Warehouse.

Podcast Episode(s)

096 - Dealer's Choice by Patrick Marber

075 - The Homecoming, by Harold Pinter

Recommended Play(s)

Matthew recommended Attempts on her Life by Martin Crimp.