The American Rep Theater of WNY starts the New Year and the second-half of the 2011-12 season with a production of D.L. Colburn's classic work, THE GIN GAME, to be presented at the Buffalo East, 1410 Main Street, January 20th through February 12th.
First presented in 1976 at the American Theater Arts in Hollywood, THE GIN GAME moved to Broadway in 1977 and featured Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy with Mike Nichols handling the directorial duties. Tandy went on to win a Tony Award for her performance, and in 1978, THE GIN GAME earned a Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The play was made into a television movie twice, with Cronyn and Tandy reprising their roles in 1981 and, more recently, in 2002 with Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore.
Colburn best captures the idea of how isolation, as one grows older, can affect mental stability and the ability to separate fact from fiction in one's personal history.
About the show: THE GIN GAME takes place in an underfunded nursing home where two retirees, Weller Martin (played by Mark Donahue) and Fonsia Dorsey (played by Joy Scime) ease their need for friendship by enjoying companionship through causal conversation and an introductory game of gin rummy. Call it "beginner's luck", throughout the course of several games, Fonsia continues to soundly beat the more experience card player, Weller. His frustration soon gets the best of his judgment and he starts to hold his losing streak against Fonsia. This bitterness becomes personal as Weller begins to use Fonsia's personal history, learned through previous pleasant conversation, as a way of psyching her out. Fonsia, in turn, holds her past as tightly as her next card hand and she practices her own form of psychological warfare on Weller. What ensues is masterly crafted by the playwright Colburn is a card table battleground where two lost souls, at the expense of one another, try to find some last bit of purpose in their lives.
American Rep Theater of WNY's Technical Director, Michael Lodick, lends his directorial eye to the piece. "I've got a great cast, strong story and this will be a great show." Said Lodick. "both Joy (Scime) and Mark (Donahue) are delightful to work with and have brought so much to this piece. And this is after a few days of rehearsal!" Lodick, who directed an original work by local playwright, Mark Humphrey, for ART's Local Playwright One-Act Showcase, is confident THE GIN GAME will speak to all ages. "It's a piece that speaks to anyone who has a parent or grand-parent in a home or, unfortunately, will have to face this within the next few years of their lives." Said Lodick. "It's not an 'old person's' play. The play will certainly give everyone, all ages, something to think about."
THE GIN GAME opens on January 20th and runs to February 12th. The production has evening performances Thursday through Saturday, 7:30 and Sunday matinees, 2 pM. Prices are $15 General Admission and $12 Students & Military Personnel.
Showdates:
Jan 19th (Preview)
Jan 20th-21st, 7:30 pm, Jan 22nd, 2 pm
Jan 26th-28th, 7:30 pm, Jan 29th, 2 pm
Feb 2nd-4th, 7:30 pm, Jan 5th, 2 pm
Feb 9th-11th, 7:30 pm, Feb 12th, 2 pm
For further information on THE GIN GAME please visit www.artofwny.org or call 716-634-1102 for ticket reservations.
