The Gin Game
Reviewed by Taylor Kass
Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum
Through September 29
Wendell (Allen Blumenfeld) and Fonsia (Katherine James) aren’t your cuddly cookie-baking grandparents. These card shark retirees play endless games of gin, as well as swear, argue, and (almost) fall in love. The pair inhabit The Gin Game, the 1978 Pulitzer Prize winner by D.L. Coburn now playing at Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum. The play portrays retirement home residents (an often-forgotten demographic) with the dignity and complexity they deserve, but its slow pace and overwrought card-focused framing device make this production come up short.
Theatricum legends, Blumenfeld and James are engaged in a game they know how to win. This real-life married couple feels comfortable — but not laissez-faire — in the roles of Wendell and Fonsia, having performed them together last year at the Sierra Madre Playhouse. Their chemistry and care for each other are palpable, but they’re also not afraid to get gritty and mean. At times, they seem to glean almost too much enjoyment from hurling expletives at each other. Nor do they shy away from the despondency and frustration their characters feel as new residents of a run-down retirement community whose families never come on visiting day. It’s sweet to see Wendell and Fonsia grow closer with each game of gin, but moments of high drama seem forced.
Design-wise, it’s difficult to tame Theatricum’s outdoor space. Mother Nature provides the all-too-consistent lighting, so there’s little that sound designer Barry Schwam can do to make us believe in the final scene’s thunderstorm. Christian Lebano’s set — essentially a blue tent, a rug of fake grass, a flimsy table, and two mismatched chairs — is haphazard and much too sparse.
The grand, rustic Theatricum Botanicum is simply the wrong setting for The Gin Game, a realistic two-hander only remarkable for its intimate, narrow focus on a slow-burn relationship. During long stretches of text detailing the rules of gin, or painfully extended scene transitions, it’s easy to let your attention drift to Theatricum’s stunning natural backdrop of trees. Outdoor theatre works best with larger-than-life stories that invoke the nature that surrounds it, and at Theatricum, The Gin Game feels out of place.
Will Geer’s Theatricum Botanicum, S. Mark Taper Pavilion, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga; Sat.-Sun., 1 p.m.; through Sep. 29. https://www.theatricum.com/. Running time: one hour and 30 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.
