The Gin Game, Original American 3 Sheet Theater Broadway Poster

1977

Paul Davis

playwright: D.L. Coburn, directed by Mike Nichols, starring Hume Cronin & Jessica Tandy

Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey two elderly residents at a nursing home for senior citizens strike up an acquaintance. Neither seems to have any other friends and they start to enjoy each other's company. Weller offers to teach Fonsia how to play gin rummy and they begin playing a series of games that Fonsia always wins. Weller's inability to win a single hand becomes increasingly frustrating to him while Fonsia becomes increasingly confident. While playing their games of gin they engage in lengthy conversations about their families and their lives in the outside world. Gradually each conversation becomes a battle much like the ongoing gin games as each player tries to expose the other's weaknesses to belittle the other's life and to humiliate the other thoroughly.

Photographed unbacked, linen backing, would cost $250 and take approximately 3 weeks.