Real-life marrieds Alan Blumenfeld and Katherine James give bravura performances as a pair of nursing home residents for whom a simple game of cards could spell either an end to solitude or a continuation of a lifetime of loneliness in Sierra Madre Playhouse’s pitch-perfect revival of D.L. Coburn’s 1978 Pulitzer Prize winner The Gin Game.

 Blumenfeld and James star as divorcees Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey, neither of whom is likely to have friends or family stopping by the home on Visitor’s Day Sunday, Weller’s ex-wife having long ago alienated him from his adult children and Fonsia’s married-with-children son having moved too far away for a casual visit.

What better way to pass the time then than with a friendly game of gin?

Unfortunately for Weller, though Fonsia may claim not to have played “gin rummy” in years, she quickly demonstrates either tremendous skill or tremendous luck, winning hand after hand to Weller’s increasing dismay, though perhaps rage might be a better way to describe his reaction to her repeated cries of “Gin!”

 Were playwright Coburn writing for the Hallmark Channel, all this friction would surely lead to late-in-life love and a feel-good ending to do fairytale tellers proud.

Said happy ending proves far less than a given as written, however, Weller and Fonsia’s not-so-friendly gin games serving as a reminder of how an insistence on winning can end up alienating coworkers, friends, and family alike, and might now have the same effect on this couple of old-timers who could otherwise be made for each other.

Adding to The Gin Game’s four-decade staying power is its perceptive, increasingly relevant examination of what awaits American seniors lacking a familial or financial safety net.

Ultimately, however, Coburn’s play’s greatest pleasures stem from the performances of its two leads, and in Blumenfeld and James, director Christian Lebano (at the top of his game) has found a duo more than capable of following in the footsteps of such illustrious pairings as Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy, Charles Durning and Julie Harris, Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, and most recently on Broadway, James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson.

 Exhibiting a flawless command of two acts’ worth of dialog that could easily challenge actors half their ages, Blumenfeld and James deliver performances that mix flirtation with flaring tempers and attempts at peace-making with non-stop button pushing.

Watching Blumenfeld deal cards with ever-increasing anger (and never twice in the same way), or deducing that James’s innocent air just might be a mask for cunning, or savoring how Weller uses his cane as a weapon and Fonsia her purse as protection. all of this adds up to non-stop theatrical bliss.

Scenic designer Tesshi Nakagawa and properties designer McKenzie Eckels give us a nursing home patio as grim as it is cluttered with abandoned paraphernalia, Derek Jones’s lighting goes from daylight to moonlight to florescent light to striking effect as Elizabeth Nankin’s costumes reveal just how Weller and Fonsia are approaching each new meeting, Amanda Walter’s frumpy wig transforms James from Doris Day to Thelma Ritter, and Barry Schwam’s sound design provides effective ambient effects.

Choreographer Cate Caplin gives Weller and Fonsia a brief but effective fling on the dance floor.

Last but not least, assistant stage manager Matthew Raymond shows up between scenes as precisely the kind of shaggy-haired teen or 20something you’d expect to see hired to straighten furniture and clean up messes.

The Gin Game is produced by Lebano and Estelle Campbell. Elizabeth Eichler is stage manager. Todd McCraw is technical director.

Rare is the play that offers actors of Social Security check-receiving age the chance to take center stage, and equally rare are performers capable of captivating an audience for nearly two hours without a hitch. The Gin Game, starring Alan Blumenfeld and Katherine James, does both to indelible effect.

Sierra Madre Playhouse, 87 W. Sierra Madre Blvd., Sierra Madre.
www.sierramadreplayhouse.org

–Steven Stanley
October 1, 2018
Photos: Gina Long

Tags: D. L. Coburn, Los Angeles Theater Review, Sierra Madre Playhouse