Creative team:

Conceived and directed by Guillaume Pigé

Devised by the company

Performers - Alex Judd, Guillaume Pigé, Tugba Tamer

Writer & Main collaborator - Adam Taylor

Music composer - Alex Judd

Lighting designer & Technical manager - Katherine Graham

(Pierre Gouverneur during R&D)

Custume designer / Costume maker - Rosie Hogger

(Noëlle Claude during R&D)

Photograph - Magnus Arrevad & François Verbeek

Touring information:

We performed THE GAMBLER at:

The Roundhouse Studio Theatre (London, 2011)

Saint Ann’s Library (London, 2011)

The Space (London, 2011)

The Cockpit (London, 2012)

The Roundhouse Studio Theatre (London, 2012)

The Bull Theatre (London, 2012)

The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (London, 2012)

Jacksons Lane (London, 2012)

The Pleasance - Edinburgh Festival Fringe (Edinburgh, 2012)

Canada Water Arts Centre (London, 2012)

The Cockpit (London, 2012)

South Hill Park (Bracknell, 2013)

The Firestation (Windsor, 2013)

The Riverfront (Newport, 2013)

THE GAMBLER


Press:

✭✭✭✭✭ "A remarkable piece of theatre: slick, imaginative, engaging and flawlessly executed."

Broadway Baby

✭✭✭✭✭ "Impressive piece of storytelling."

Three Weeks

✭✭✭✭ "The Gambler triumphs over the audience with a thought-provoking and engaging journey."

Scotsgay

✭✭✭✭ "Spellbinding physical theatre, The Gambler has a gorgeous aesthetic quality that enchants the audience."

A Younger Theatre

✭✭✭✭ "Exquisite choreography, supremely seductive score"

Fringe Biscuit

✭✭✭✭ " Simply beautiful and definitely worth a watch"

Stage Won

✭✭✭✭ "A cross between ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and a toy music box"

One Stop Art

✭✭✭✭ "The physicality was enthralling and beautifully liked to the filmic piano playing"

London Festival Fringe

Mervyn Stutter’s Pick of The Fringe

3rd place on TOP 225 show at The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2012 by TICK IT

About The Gambler:

Everyone gambles, whether it be on which rain drops will reach the bottom of a window first, or by placing one more bet on the table. Then it is just a matter of proportions.

To create our story we dived into the worlds of Stefan Zweig (Twenty-Four Hours In The Life Of A Woman), Pushkin (The Queen Of Spades) and Dostoyevsky (The Gambler). Part of our development also involved opening a meaningful dialogue with former gambling addicts in North London.

We looked for metaphors of what the game is to the gambler and what it does to him. We wanted to make the attraction, the dependence, the excitement, the hesitation, the turmoil and the ever-unfulfilled deadly pleasure of gambling visible to the audience by connecting movement, text and music together.

In the end our gambler comes out of an underworld den of the fin de siècle, where groups of men would sit in a smoky haze at green baize-covered tables, playing endless games of cards, roulette or faro. He gambles to find hope in himself and bring together the scattered dreams of his wasted life. He gambles to remember, he gambles to forget.