(See columns 3 and 4)

An adaptation by Norman Ginsbury of the story by Dostoevsky.
[Starring] Hermione Baddeley, Rosalie Crutchley, James Donald with Peter Wyngarde and Andree Melly
James Donald as Alexei Ivanovitch
(Tony Richardson produces by permission of the English Stage Company)

What can one possibly do at a place called Roulettenberg except play roulette? Technically it is a spa, and some of the characters do talk of taking the waters, but it is the casino rather than the spring which draws them to this part of the Rhine; it is to the whirling table and the spinning ball that they devote themselves.
And with what devotion! The Gambler is a study in obsession, an account of the way in which the hoarse call of the croupier is answered without regard to the cost in terms of money or lives.
In the first stages of the play it is simply money which drives the principal characters to the casino. The General is up to his ears in debt; even his step-daughter Polina's inheritance is mortgaged to the Marquis de Grieux who thus dogs their very footsteps awaiting repayment. This cannot be long delayed for the general's aunt is dying (are there not perpetual telegrams saying so?) and then he will be able to clear his debts and marry the merry-eyed Mlle. Blanche.
In the midst of all this, half-spectator, half-participant, stands the tutor Alexei Ivanovitch, poor himself (his wages are always in arrears) and tortured by Polina whom he loves but who flaunts before him her link with de Grieux and a potential liaison with a wealthy Englishman.
Alexei hates the casino; he hates his ill-luck and despises the crudity and the cupidity of those who play there. But he is driven to play himself to try to get money for Polina. She spurs him on; others use him too; and then the fever sets in...
(Elwyn Jones)