Reviewed by Dr. Tiffany Knight Raymond, Ph.D.
South Park Theatre revives Donald L. Coburn’s 1976 play, The Gin Game. (The card game, not a drinking game, in case, like me, you were thinking the latter.) Coburn’s play won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for drama, but it has never sustained long production runs.
Director Joe Eberle brings Coburn’s two-person show to South Park Theatre. The cozy South Park stage is the perfect venue for this intimate play. It takes place at a nursing home over a series of gin games between new residents Weller Martin (Mark Yochum) and Fonsia Dorsey (Marianne Shaffer).
The mid-1970s The Gin Game falls far short in comparison, but it seems inspired by Edward Albee’s 1962 landmark play Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. Weller and Fonsia are older versions of Albee’s middle-aged George and Martha as they descend from get-to-know-you nursing home niceties into full-fledged psychological warfare.
The play gets progressively darker, and Eberle wavers a bit in embracing the vitriol. Yochum’s crisp hand movements and frequent situational cursing authentically punctuate the production. However, when it comes to doling out verbal abuse, Yochum is a bit restrained. It’s a testimony to his character that it’s hard for him to tap into the dark side, but it does muddy the waters and leaves the play a bit tepid. Weller uses a cane, but Eberle doesn’t have Yochum consistently lean into it.
In terms of casting, Eberle nails it. Yochum and Shaffer are well-matched equals with effortless chemistry. This isn’t surprising given the program reveals they were not only in the same high school graduating class, but they acted together in a play back then.
Shaffer brings a quiet power to Fonsia’s character. Fonsia shares she divorced her husband when her son was a toddler and suggests it was because Walter was abusive. Given divorce was uncommon in the period of her youth, she was clearly ahead of her time. This makes it all the more perplexing when she tolerates Weller’s erratically cruel behavior.
Weller is proud he’s a seasoned gin player. In fact, he recounts air travel in terms of the number of gin games it took between destinations from his days as a businessman. Weller tutors novice Fonsia on the basics so she can play. However, the frequency with which she wins irks, then infuriates, Weller. Coburn’s writing leaves a number of unanswered questions in the plot, which is perhaps why the play never attained major success. Given the supposed mismatch in their game skills, once her winning streak starts, we’re never certain Fonsia is just pretending to be a beginner – or what her motivations would be to lie at the outset.
Amy Farber’s set design is genius. She creates a clapboard cute nursing home patio where the play takes place. It’s also a little worn and fringed with pockets of forgotten clutter that symbolize the ways in which the home’s residents have “lived too long” as Weller refers to the two of them at one point.
In fact, Weller and Fonsia are brought together by absence. They meet on visitation day when neither of them have any visitors, making the patio a refuge. The buzz of voices from inside the center stage French doors bleed out, reminding them they are just outside the action. Weller and Fonsia never utilize the French doors, but a door on stage right, visually reinforcing the ways in which they are sidelined.
Darien O’Neal’s costume design advances the plot and the relationship between Weller and Fonsia. When they first meet, they’re both in dismal housewear. Weller is wrapped in a plaid bathrobe, and Fonsia is in a pink house dress. In perfect attention to detail, Fonsia’s slippers aren’t even fully on her feet. Her downtrodden state is made visual with the backs of her slippers folded and crushed beneath her heels. In the next scene, hope springs as Weller sports a suit and tie, and Fonsia’s floral dress is topped with a dusty rose cardigan.
The play’s most memorable moments are when Weller and Fonsia banter and poke fun at nursing home life. They elicit easy laughter from the audience as they ponder small injustices, such as the frequent serving of stewed tomatoes, which no one likes them. Fonsia sing songs, “I don’t take my medication; I take our medication.” One easily envisions nursing home staff members in scrubs speaking in hushed, child-like tones as they administer tiny paper cups of pills.
The play covers a spectrum of emotions and reminds us of the delicate intricacies of human relationships, regardless of one’s age.
-TR, Ph.D.
South Park Theatre’s production of The Gin Game runs through June 14, 2025 at South Park Theatre, South Park Township, PA, 15129. Purchase tickets online here.
