The Gin Game
is a two-person, two-act play by D.L. Coburn that premiered at American Theater Arts in Hollywood in September 1976, directed by Kip Niven. It was Coburn's first play, and the theater's first production.
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Plot synopsis
Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey, two elderly residents at a nursing home for senior citizens, strike up an acquaintance. Neither seems to have any other friends, and they start to enjoy each other's company. Weller offers to teach Fonsia how to play
gin rummy, and they begin playing a series of games that Fonsia always wins. Weller's inability to win a single hand becomes increasingly frustrating to him, while Fonsia becomes increasingly confident.
While playing their games of gin, they engage in lengthy conversations about their families and their lives in the outside world. Gradually, each conversation becomes a battle, much like the ongoing gin games, as each player tries to expose the other's weaknesses, to belittle the other's life, and to humiliate the other thoroughly.
Production history
The Gin Game
opened on
Broadway on October 6, 1977 at the
John Golden Theatre and ran for 517 performances. The play was directed by
Mike Nichols and starred the married couple
Hume Cronyn and
Jessica Tandy. The play has come to be closely associated with them. Jessica Tandy won the 1978
Tony Award -- Best Actress in a Play. Cronyn and Tandy were replaced in the original Broadway run by
E.G. Marshall and
Maureen Stapleton.
It was produced in the UK in 1999 with
Joss Ackland and
Dorothy Tutin at the
Savoy Theatre, directed by
Frith Banbury.
It was revived on
Broadway in 1997 at the
Lyceum Theatre where it ran for 145 performances.
Charles Durning and
Julie Harris co-starred, directed by
Charles Nelson Reilly. It received
Tony Award nominations for
Best Revival of a Play,
Leading Actress in a Play and
Direction of a Play.
Adaptations
Adaptations for television versions were made in 1981 with Cronyn and Tandy and in 2002 with
Dick Van Dyke and
Mary Tyler Moore.
Awards and nominations
;Awards
- 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama
;Nominations
- 1978 Drama Desk Award Outstanding New Play
- 1978 Tony Award for Best Play
- 1997 Drama Desk Award Outstanding Revival of a Play
- 1997 Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play
References