Approaches perfection: Medea, @sohoplace, reviewed

Winner’s Curse is a hybrid drama by Dan Patterson and Daniel Taub which opens as a lecture by a fictional diplomat, Hugo Leitski (a dinner-jacketed Clive Anderson). Leitski offers to teach us the subtle art of negotiation. An expert diplomat, he explains, must convince each side that they’re the winners in the negotiation and that their opponents have lost. In his youth he helped to broker peace between two Slavic nations, Karvistan and Moldonia, and the action switches from Leitksi’s lecture room to a seedy hotel, the Black Lagoon Lodge, where the peace deal was agreed.

The lodge is run by a wonderfully sardonic widow, Vaslika, who asks each new guest which party they belong to. ‘Liars or blackmailers?’ As the talks continue, she stomps off to hunt wild game and keeps returning to the lobby with fresh prey slung from her shoulder: squirrels, seagulls, pigeons, pike and carp – at least that’s what they look like. Her long-lost husband’s ashes reside in an urn which Vaslika cradles tenderly. ‘He took seven bullets,’ she says, giving the urn a shake. The bullets rattle inside it.

The fast-moving comedy of the Moldonia scenes is varied with examples of deal-making enacted by the cast. Consider a Ming vase on sale in a market. The seller names his price, $5,000, and you offer him $100. If he accepts instantly, you will know that you overpaid. But suppose he reduces his price gradually, and with enormous shows of reluctance, while you increase your offer until a deal is reached at $3,000. You’ll feel assured that you made a terrific bargain. That’s the key. The specific terms are irrelevant. The emotional attitude of the deal-maker is crucial. Each side wants to believe that they’ve dragged concessions unwillingly from their rivals.