Edinburgh Fringe 2025
Casino?
State ae That Theatre
Genre: Comedy, New Writing, Theatre
Venue: theSpace @ Surgeons' Hall
Festival: Edinburgh Fringe
Low Down
Casino? is a comedy with a darker side majoring on one of society’s decidedly non-comedic “can we sweep it under the carpet” topics. Follow four restaurant workers as they seek solace with drunken nights in the local casino, leading to hungover shifts in a dead end job with a meglomaniac of a manager. They’re pining for the day the graft will have been worth it. If it ever arrives.
Review
The “?” at the end of Casino?, turns out to be more important than first appeared, as writer Ben Martin’s hilarious, fascinating, fast paced take on the hospitality industry, focusing on four hard pressed restaurant workers, reaches a somewhat unexpected conclusion.
And it’s fittingly ironic that many wannabe actors, such as this young quintet from recently formed State ae That Theatre, have to work in hospitality simply to keep their heads above the choppy socio-economic waters flowing around many parts of the Scottish economy these days.
Paying the minimum wage arguably results in minimum effort from those receiving it. And that’s precisely what the four staff at this typical Glaswegian Southside emporium with grandiose pretentions put into their respective roles. There’s waitress Jess (Beth Key), feisty and flirty in equal measure, her colleague Amy (Brogan Hale), as the classic ingenue (or bit of totty, to use Weegie patois), Rory (Mark Grant), a bartender out for what he can get (and he gets it) and Chris, (Ben Martin) whose developing hubris confuses luck with ability with amusing but sadly relatable consequences. Orchestrating this chaos is Max (Adam Blackwood), as the almost pantomimesque owner/manager of this joint.
Dialogue races through this breakneck piece at the speed water tumbles down a Scottish hillside following a downpour. Conversations are laced with a biting, dark humour, dotted with satire and a string of wonderful comic asides, all of which is delivered with split second timing. Glasgow patois gets an extensive airing as expletives mingle with slang that mixes with just the occasional word/phrase that visiting Sassenach’s might comprehend. Though heaven help anyone who doesn’t claim English as a their native language.
But that matters not one wit as character portrayal from the quintet is spot on. Failed to grasp that last aside? Not sure quite what that phrase meant? No problem – just focus on their voices, intonation and what they’re doing with their bodies and faces. You’ll get all you need to help you follow the developing plot as it gallops to a denouement that is obvious when you see it. But then everything is obvious, when you know the answer, isn’t it?
However, the clever thing about Casino? is that it doesn’t attempt to provide answers. Rather, it asks questions. And very relevant ones at that, particularly on the roles played by the many and varied protagonists that inhabit the capitalist business world, whether the living wage actually provides enough to let you live and does the focus on maximising profit ultimately destroy value rather than creating it?
Eilidh Macdonald’s incisive direction gets full use out of the stage and the sound and lighting both support the onstage action as well as delineate changes in location and time.
Casino? is a piece of sharp, observational, apposite, silly, absurd yet worryingly relevant theatre. And bloody funny too! Highly recommended.
