Gamble – mac, Birmingham

Writers: Hannah Walker and Rosa Postlethwaite

Director: Paula Penman

Much of life can be considered a gamble. The decisions we make all carry high stakes as the pressure of the daily grind takes its toll. What doesn’t always get the attention it deserves though is the harmful act of gambling itself. Hannah Walker aims to set the record straight in this colourful, charismatic, yet heart-breaking story.

Based on facts presented in the show, the gambling industry is worth over £15 billion a year, with nearly half of the adult population believed to have gambled at some point in their lives. While messages warning you to gamble responsibly are seen as the solution by the industry, Walker’s show Gamble unearths the cracks beneath the surface.

Walker uses her own experience from her relationship to tell the story of how lives can be devastated by the cruel world of gambling, and the lack of empathy and support out there by the industry and government to help those in need. It is admirable that such a play has been written on such personal experiences, especially with Walker starring in the show herself. The play aims to raise awareness and de-stigmatise gambling addiction along with showing how resilience and love can help people recover. There are moments in the play where this is captured very well. Towards the end of the show, we see clips of Walker herself as well as recovering gambling addicts talking through their struggles which is heart-breaking and heart-warming in equal measure.

As the story is so personal to Walker, it would be better for this raw emotion to come through more throughout the hour-long play as at times it feels like the use of comedy, choreographed dancing and singing is overdone and distracts from the core messages of what the play is trying to achieve. There is also the use of multimedia throughout which is creative and helps the audience to watch back some of those personal accounts about the difficulties she faced. There is the opportunity to use multimedia for this purpose more instead of breaking out into dancing to Vengaboys at random moments. Perhaps there is a balance to be struck between wanting to avoid the play turning into a passionate rant about the many pitfalls in the world of gambling, while simultaneously presenting lighter moments in a piece of personal, intimate theatre.

Accompanying Walker on stage are co-creator Rosa Postlethwaite and BSL interpreter Faye Alvi. The use of the BSL interpretation is commendable for inclusivity but it goes further than that as Alvi is an integral member of the play itself, joining in with the story and all of the aforementioned dancing. The short play concludes with an extended Q&A with Dr Matt Gaskell who supports those with gambling addictions. Gaskell is on tour with the company and it is an excellent debrief to cover the issues raised in the play and provide the opportunity for the audience to ask any questions. Walker mentioned that this segment may be integrated into the play in the future and this may help bring more cohesion to the structure of the original play while delivering the hard-hitting messages that it aims to do.

Reviewed on 8 March 2024 and on tour