The trouble begins and ends with a card game for two lonely, elderly residents of the Bentley Nursing and Convalescent Home. As Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey play gin on the sun porch of the so-called rest home their lives, past and present, are laid down like the cards.
Acadia Repertory Theatre on Tuesday opened its 45th season on Mount Desert Island with a delightful and thought provoking production of the two-character, two-act play “The Gin Game.” Nearly as old as the theater company itself, the play touches on the issues facing the elderly including illness, isolation, memory loss and welfare for the aged.
“The Gin Game” was the first and most successful play written by Baltimore native D. L. Coburn. It was first performed in 1976 in Los Angeles and moved to Broadway the following year. In 1978, it won the Pulitzer Prize for drama.
In director Frank Bachman’s hands, the Acadia production feels like it takes place in the present, except for the absence of cell phones. He expertly uses silences to punctuate the dialogue and perfectly times the emotional outbursts along with the laughs. Although Weller and Fonsia spend much of the show sitting down, playing cards and talking, “The Gin Game” is not a static show but, instead, is emotionally and intellectually engaging.
Much the credit for that goes to its stars, Cheryl Willis and Michael Kissin, who winter in Minneapolis/St. Paul, as Fonsia and Weller, respectively. They have worked together and it shows in their ability to easily communicate with each other in character.
Willis’ Fonsia at first appears to be a soft hearted and headed woman with a faded attractiveness. That masks what is revealed later to be a steely spine that allowed her to work as a single mother in time when they were far fewer working woman than there are now.
That quality, however, has left her isolated from her only child and alone. In revealing Fonsia’s losses, Willis’ skillfully performs an emotional striptease that lays bare the woman’s tortured past. It is a stunning achievement for the actress, who is best known at Acadia as a character actress.
Kissin is equally adept as letting Weller’s rage slowly build to the boiling point. The final explosion is shocking but not surprising because of how Kissin handles the character’s short outbursts at consistently losing every hand to Willis’ Fonsia.
Willis and Kissin make these characters and the aging issues they are facing so real that theatergoers feel like they are eavesdropping on a real card game at one of the many nursing/convalescent shows that line the Maine coast.
While it is not addressed directly, the current debate over the Affordable Care Act, the proposed cuts to Medicaid and the retirement of the Baby Boomer generation laps against the doors of the theater.
Unexpectedly, “The Gin Game” is as, if not more, relevant than when it was first performed in the mid-1970s. Acadia Repertory’s production proves why the play still can engage, inform and challenge an audience.
“The Gin Game” will be performed at Acadia Repertory Theater in the Somesville Masonic Lodge through July 9. For information, call 244-7260 or visit acadiarep.com.