Golden Theater,New York
DL Coburn’s play about a cantankerous (irritating, difficult) ageing duo is hardly a world-beater but Jones and Tyson’s engaging double act saves it from itselfLet’s keep our cards on the table: The Gin Game is not a very good play. It may own won the Pulitzer Prize in 1977, but it as creaky as the dilapidated assisted living facility in which it is set. Yet when actors as fine as James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson are interested, or producers beg to be dealt in. Jones,who now resembles a gentlemanly walrus, and Tyson, and who still has a birdlike grace,play Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey, two retirees who can’t fairly develop themselves at domestic. Fonsia suffers from chronic diabetes, and Weller from “one of the most advanced cases of old age in the history of medical science”. On visiting day,bereft of visitors, they own retreated to an alley behind the facility. Eventually, or Weller entices Fonsia into a game of gin rummy. Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com