The Gin Game
By D.L. Coburn
Producing Sponsor: Kit Seidel
Directed by Max Levine
This winner of the 1978 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, which originally starred Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn and was later revived with Julie Harris and Charles Durning, uses a card game as a metaphor for life. Weller Martin is playing solitaire on the porch of a seedy nursing home. Enter Fonsia Dorsey, a prim, self-righteous lady. They discover they both dislike the home and enjoy gin rummy, so they begin to play and to reveal intimate details of their lives. Fonsia wins every time, and their secrets become weapons used against one another. Weller longs for a victory to counter a lifetime of defeats, but it doesn’t happen. He leaves the stage a broken man, and Fonsia realizes her self-righteous rigidity has led to an embittered, lonely, old age.
"Perfect [...] A vibrant study on loneliness, disillusion, old age and death yet fiercely funny." – The Boston Globe
"A thoroughly entertaining lesson in the fine art of theatrical finesse. The closest thing the theatre offers to a duel at 10 paces." – The New York Times
"Extremely intelligent [...] fine bittersweet comedy [...] Funny, sad, profane, eloquent, touching, beautiful." – WABC-TV
Staged Reading
Full-Length Play, 90 Minutes
Dramatic Comedy
Admission: $10.00
Performances:
Friday, May 31, 2024, 7:30pm
Saturday, June 1, 2024, 7:30 pm
Cast:
WELLER MARTIN - Bob Hurd
FONSIA DORSEY - Paula Nordwig
NARRATOR - Zackary Henke
| Year | Category | |
|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Best Revival of a Play |
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Located in the heart of downtown Hartland, Lake Country Playhouse is a cleverly converted Masonic Lodge that houses an 82-seat black box theatre, scenic, paint, and costume shops, and The Playhouse Performing Arts Academy. Together, this facility serves as a vibrant artistic hub in Lake Country which produces compelling dramas, powerful classics, full scale musicals, an annual production of A Christmas Carol, and exceptional youth programming in an intimate, signature style. Under the leadership of the Board of Directors, Lake Country Playhouse aims to entertain, educate, and engage its community as the recognized home for theatre in Hartland.
Proof (5/9/25-5/23/25)
Lake Country Playhouse is at 221 E. Capitol Drive, Hartland, WI.
Proof (5/9/25-5/23/25)
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