Thursday through Sunday at 8pm
Sunday Matinees 2pm on September 16, October 14 & 21
The Gin Game was written following a series of nursing home scandals in 1976, but is not a social polemic. It examines the interactions between two down-on-their-luck oldsters who have been shafted into a low level retirement home institution. Weller and Fonsia still have their wits about them, however, and strike up what appears to be, at first, at wonderful friendship centered around a card table and, specifically, the game of gin rummy. Weller fancies himself a great gin player, and as the couple play they delve into each other’s souls, each hand of cards unearthing some dark secret, each revelation noted and stored for the next round of incriminations.  This coruscating comedy, by adman D. L. Coburn, started its life in a 56 seat theater off Hollywood Boulevard, was snapped up by The Actors Theatre of Louisville for its first season of new plays, was brought to the attention of Hume Cronyn who just as quickly got Mike Nichols to agree to direct him and his wife, Jessica Tandy. After test runs in New Haven and Boston, The Gin Game opened on Broadway, October 6, 1977, to rave reviews, four Tony nominations (Ms Tandy won for Best Actress), and 1978’s coveted Pulitzer Prize for Drama. The show ran for 516 performances, then with the original stars, toured the country, and the world. It was revived on Broadway in 1997 with Charles Durning and Julie Harris with an added waltz sequence. Mary Tyler Moore and Dick Van Dyke produced and starred in a PBS presentation of The Gin Game in 2003.

Mendocino Theatre Company’s version of The Gin Game offers audiences an unusual twist. Director Mervin Gilbert has employed two casts to share the rigorous demands of the play. The Red Team features veteran actors Bob Cohen and Henriet Bederman, and the Blue Team offers up Steve Worthen and Yvonne Armstrong as the protagonists. The pairs will alternate after the first weekend (all Red Team) and even go Purple in selected upcoming performances. The excellent set by Nicole Allan of a seedy porch, a repository for cast-off furniture and things, serves as a metaphor for the card playing duo. Marcie Schorg dresses the set with appropriate detritus. Matt Biggs has designed the lighting, and Marco McClean and Susan Juhl have collaborated on the ambient sound effects. Stage Manager Cindy McLain will run the show and Brian Eich will supply technical effects from the booth.

Tickets $15, $20 on Saturday    Box Office: 707-937-4477
Helen Schoeni Theatre, 45200 Little Lake Street, Mendocino, Ca
Mendocino Theatre Company