The Gambler NYC Reviews and Tickets

79%

(1 Review)

Positive

100%

Mixed

Negative

Members say

Funny, Absorbing, Entertaining, Great writing

About the Show

Wild Project presents Fyodor Dostoevsky's brilliant tragicomic novella, written in a feverish few weeks to stave off ruin from serious debt, his addicted to roulette and his rejection by several women.

Alexei Ivanovich, servant to a bankrupt family, falls madly in love twice- first with the lovely unobtainable Polina, then with the forbidden thrill of the Casino. As Polina demands ever more slavish and reckless obedience from him, Alexei finds liberation in his enslavement, and their relationship starts to mutate into something altogether richer and stranger. Olivier-nominated playwright Glyn Maxwell recreates the madness and mayhem of a world enthralled by chance, sex, and money: a world spinning out of control.

Member Reviews (1)

Absorbing, Entertaining, Great writing, Funny

See it if you want an enjoyable (perhaps overlong) tale of greed, love, gambling, obsession, and descent as Russian aristocrats holiday in France.

Don't see it if you are unable to sit for two hours without (the published) intermission. You desire an elaborate production.

Critic Reviews (4)

"Directed by Karen Lordi-Kirkham at the Wild Project, this production seems to have miscast those parts. There’s no electricity, comic or romantic. Lines that ought to be funny are lifeless instead...Other members of the ensemble have their moments, yet the prevailing absence of laughs gives the performance a lamentable air of desperation."
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"Director Lordi-Kirkham has unaccountably staged the play as though it were a radio play or a reading, making it more talky and static than it needs to be...Unfortunately, the actors playing the twenty-somethings who are given the most stage time do not have the technique necessary to bring off this psychological drama. At two hours and 10 minutes with no intermission, this is a long evening in the theater."
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"Maxwell's adaptation of 'The Gambler' is buoyant and surprisingly cheerful, but manages to maintain the philosophical backbone of Dostoyevsky's writing. Director Lordi-Kirkham has made sure that the cast know their characters' bones. The slip from jovial to earnest and back again has few flaws."
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"The playwright crafted an ensemble piece in 'The Gambler,' and with the direction of Karen Lordi-Kirkham, we are invited to experience a vivid ensemble, led by the affable Alexi, played by John Cosentino…The details are where the script becomes uneven, lacking deference to Russia and St. Petersburg in the 1860s."
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