Fine acting, restrained direction energize 'The Gin Game'

By: PAM KRAGEN - Staff Writer | Wednesday, February 9, 2005 12:09 PM PST ∞

Performances that crackle with energy and authenticity bring new life to D.L. Coburn's "The Gin Game" at Vista's Broadway Theater this month.

The 27-year-old play has hardly lost its gut-punching power when put in the hands of a strong pair of actors like Michael Thomas Tower and Monica Wyatt. Together, they bring realism to the parts of Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey, a stubborn pair of lonely retirees who find friendship, romance and conflict over a series of contentious card games at the run-down retirement home they share.

Director Randall Hickman double-cast the parts of Weller and Fonsia. Edwin Eigner and Corinne Williams perform on alternate nights with Tower and Wyatt. On opening night, the latter were onstage, and their powerful acting made the atmosphere electric in the intimate 49-seat theater owned by Premiere Productions.

"The Gin Game" takes place on the junk-strewn patio of a retirement home where the dainty, proud Fonsia and the cantankerous, effusive Weller meet on "visitors" day (when, notably, neither has a single visitor) and agree to a friendly game of gin. Weller is desperate to escape his solitary card games, and Fonsia is desperate to escape her solitary life. As he teaches her to play (she's quickly an ace, beating him at most every game) they teasingly dispense nuggets of detail from their past, each tidbit carefully varnished with cover-ups and lies.

Fonsia's genteel exterior at first hides a sanctimonious, vindictive nature and a general hatred of men. And Weller's air of joviality slowly gives way to a molten temper that erupts frequently into profanity-packed rage. Still, they desperately cling to their patio meetings as an escape from the death-filled atmosphere in the retirement home.

"The Gin Game" moves quickly, with realistic dialogue, lots of humor and frequent bursts of energy. The script's only flaw is its too-abrupt ending, which will leave the audience seemingly as confused as its characters as the stage lights dim. Director Hickman draws naturalistic performances from his cast, an exceedingly difficult task when the audience sits so close to the action that they can read each hand of cards like that in a cable-TV poker tournament.

As Weller, Tower is brilliant. He's terrifically funny and believably vicious. His rubbery face and nervous fingers are conduits for the bubbling emotions of his character. And Wyatt is his ideal foil as Fonsia. Like a cloying cloud of magnolia perfume, she carries about her an air of warmth and rarified dignity, but underneath she's icy and base. She's not quite nasty enough to match Tower's blistering attacks, though, and seems more often the victim than the aggressor in their pitched battles.

Premiere co-producer Douglas Davis created the worn patio set. Hickman created the lighting and sound, which includes piped-in television programming that sets the action in the late 1970s or early '80s.

The script features strong language and is best for mature audiences. "The Gin Game" runs two hours, with intermission.

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