Serious, poignant drama at Village’s ‘The Gin Game’

Village’s new show ‘The Gin Game’ is a departure from the singing newsboys, fairy tale characters and 1960s high-schoolers that fill the rest of its 2017-18 season; not only does the straight play have a decidedly more serious tone, but the entire 80-minute show involves just two characters. Donald L. Coburn’s two-act play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1978, and it still makes an impression today.

Fonsia Dorsey (Marianne Owen) and Weller Martin (Kurt Beattie) meet one afternoon in the sunroom of a dilapidated rest home for low-income senior citizens. The two seniors begin a regular habit of playing Gin Rummy with one another and, in doing so, become fast friends.

However, as Dorsey and Martin grow closer, they begin to learn the more unpleasant parts of one another’s pasts. As Dorsey continues on a streak of beginner’s luck with the Gin games, Martin has a harder and harder time controlling his anger. Soon their relationship turns into another game — that of guessing details left out of the other’s life’s story and uncovering dark, hidden truths about each other.

It is somewhat startling — especially after the two booming, high-energy musicals shown most recently at Village — to watch just two characters on stage during an entire show. However, Beattie and Owen, being veterans of the Puget Sound theatre scene — Beattie is artistic director emeritus of ACT Theatre in Seattle — know how to use their acting talent to captivate an audience as well as a cast of 30. It’s especially impressive to note that Beattie and Owen are able to remember the specific moves of the card game — when she puts down a card, when he picks up a card — as they deliver their lines.

In a funny and rather charming twist, Beattie and Owen are actually married in real life. But with the way that the two are able to switch from genuine compassion to playful competitiveness to downright fury in a matter of a minute, you’d never guess it. (All that time spent together may explain how they were able to memorize the heavy load of lines required when your cast is two people).

The show does a fantastic job of touching on tougher topics, such as anger problems and a tendency to violence, without taking them too far in a way that seems unreal or exagerrated. It is not a play entirely about violence, but we see that Martin has a tendency to lose his temper and grossly overreact to small situations, such as losing a game of Gin. What this helps us to show is that inside every person on earth, there is both good and bad, and even people we thought we knew may have an uglier, covered side.

The script itself feels a bit lacking in plot. Because most of the show revolves around the two seniors playing games of cards, there does not seem to be a clear story arc with a conflict, building action, climax and resolution. At intermission, I was still not sure what the central problem was, and when the curtain came down on the final scene, I found myself surprised that all was over. The show ends on a cliffhanger, without closure. Then again, this could be seen as a metaphor for life — sometimes our relationships with others, even our lives themselves, end before we have a chance to make reparations for our actions.

Because the show does have some shouting, violent outbursts and swear words, I would not recommend bringing children. There is never any domestic violence, either implied or shown; however, the scenes where Beattie loses his temper are enough to shake up audience members of any age.

“The Gin Game” plays Wednesdays through Sundays and select Tuesdays through Feb. 25 at the Francis J. Gaudette Theatre, located at 303 Front St. N., Issaquah. For tickets, call the box office at 425-392-2202.

Photo courtesy of Village Theatre The Pulitzer-winning show about a man and woman who meet at a rest home is unique for including just two cast members.