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Gamble Shoot Festival Belgrade Theatre Gamble
was probably a gamble from the start. It took a highly contentious
subject, gambling addiction, that, as pointed out, the pandemic
increased in frequency and danger and used the wrong tone to highlight.
The piece was essentially about being in
relationship with someone with a gambling addiction. But, for me, the
telling of the story was too frivolous, superficial and it was often
hard to see the story for the telling of it. Hannah Walker, BSL interpreted by Faye Alvi with
help from Rosa Postlethwaite, told the story with help from some
pixelated Vox Pop interviews with gamblers and an enormous amount of
digitally generated content.
Hannah’s storytelling was highly personal, based
on the social issues that arise from living with someone whose addiction
demands dishonesty particularly around financial issues. While those
issues appeared to be resolved, trust is seriously dented when such huge
sums are involved and the lure of commercialism and capitalism demand
that homes must be secured and built, babies must be born and family
life must continue. We need money to live; gambling usually leads to
loss and therefore the vicious circle has us giddy and confused. Hannah makes the interesting point that, during
the pandemic, shop-based gambling turned into online gambling where
there are fewer safeguards and, because gamblers were home-based and
bored, the opportunities were greater and likewise the potential harm. Directed by Penman, there were interesting points
raised but it was not for me. Jane Howard 29-04-22 |
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