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Close
to the Vest
By
Kathy Ceceri
The
Gin Game
By
D.L. Coburn, directed by Steve Fletcher
Curtain
Call Theatre, through Nov. 20
Probably in deference to its audience, Curtain Call tends
to sprinkle its season of regional premieres and occasionally
challenging works with a healthy dose of plays about older
people. On the one hand, that gives the company a chance to
keep a solid actor like John Noble, who last year appeared
in Taking Leave, Loot, and A Bench in the
Sun, gainfully employed. On the other hand, it creates
a sense of déjà vu that works against the individuality of
the plays in question. When The Gin Game opened with
the two protagonists, Weller Martin (Noble) and Fonsia Dorsey
(Rie Lee) complaining about the quality of their retirement
home, I thought it was going to be a grubbier version of the
lighthearted Bench all over again. But The Gin Game
is a different kind of play altogether.
As Malachi Martin’s set design makes clear, the residents
of the Bentley aren’t just being picky when it comes to their
new digs: What looks to be the back porch of an old, decrepit
wooden structure leads to a “garden” strewn with broken chairs,
old tires, and scraps of lumber. When Fonsia, looking unkempt
in robe and slippers, steps outside, she’s weeping. A new
arrival, she’s having trouble adjusting to the thought of
having all her worldly possessions reduced to what she could
fit into a small box in her room. Weller, who’s been there
a couple of months, is hiding out from the “warehouse for
the emotionally and intellectually dead” by sitting at a small
makeshift table playing cards. He offers to teach Fonsia how
to play gin, and as they go through hand after hand they learn
more about each other, and themselves. And we find out why
these two apparently capable, intelligent people find themselves
in such sad circumstances in their final years. The Pulitzer
Prize-winning play sets our expectations on end, becoming
less and less sentimental as it wears on. By the end, we see
these seemingly likable characters in a completely different
light.
Noble and Lee worked well together, their initial mutual attraction
slowly turning into an animosity that makes the air crackle
with tension. Lee in particular makes an amazing transition
from the one-dimensional “little old lady” she appears to
be at first. Director Steve Fletcher lets the mood build so
subtly that we don’t see the shift from comradeship to competition
until it’s too late. Along with Martin’s effective set, the
incidental music, from “Happy Days Are Here Again” to “Is
That All There Is?” both reflects the era in which the residents
of the Bentley grew up and makes an ironic comment on the
action. For the characters in The Gin Game, the greatest
tragedy may be that for these two old people, their new self-awareness
may have been just too little, too late.
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