Cicely Tyson and James Earl Jones
(photo: Joan Marcus)
“The Gin Game”
The always great 84 year-old James Earl Jones and the ever grand
91 year-old Cicely Tyson have found a perfect vehicle and are playing their
roles to the hilt. In many ways old age is to youth what theater is to life. In
the theatre where dramatic events are put on stage with an intensified and
magnified vision to produce only that which is intrinsic and essential, fine plays
and their players illuminate life rather than recreate it. Advancing years also
intensify our idiosyncrasies and bring into sharp relief those oddities and behavioral
characteristics that were the bases of our once slightly more modulated personalities.
Be assured that Jones and Tyson are pros in full command of their art even as they
put their idiosyncratic characters in extra sharp relief.
In D. L. Coburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning 1977 play The Gin Game is having a joyous revival at
the Golden Theatre. This is the same theatre where it originally played with Hume
Cronyn and Jessica Tandy under the direction of Mike Nichols. Julie Harris and
Charles Durning also starred to acclaim a 1997 revival.
A ramshackle home for the aged is the place where two
elderly people reach out desperately to each other for solace and friendship. In
this setting, they become helplessly deadlocked by their own frustrations and
insecurities into a vicious and destructive power play. Fonsia (Tyson) and Weller (Jones) are the two forgotten souls
who proceed toward an unexpectedly unhappy conclusion to their relationship as
a result of their systematic exposing of the other’s weaknesses and fears.
Meeting in the home’s neglected and unused back porch each
day to play gin rummy, these prisoners of old age use this battleground for
their personal war games. These games become as frightening and menacing as
anything the Pentagon could conjure up. More than just a well-written play, The Gin Game is a splendid vehicle for these two exceptional actors who
have mastered the art of how to keep us constantly engrossed in a highly charged
gin game.
Under the excellent direction of Leonard Foglia, Tyson and Jones
create so many entertaining moments with their own wonderfully contrasted
personalities that I could never have believed a gin game could be so engrossing.
Before Fonsia comes into Weller’s life, Weller has managed to find his peace
playing solitaire. He would have rather played gin, but anything was better
than being bored by the visiting do-gooders and the other inmates who were
either too ill or too uninteresting for him to be bothered.
As Fonsia, Tyson initially affects an unsteady walk, a sense
of apprehension and nervousness when she first encounters Weller soon after she
has settled in the home. As Weller, Jones is obviously big and imposing figure but
he is also on his best behavior as he loses little time in recruiting Fonsia to
duty at the card table. But you also won’t take your eyes of her as she is cornered
into the game. Will she be the perfect foil to Wellers’ ego? You guessed it.
Fonsia wins game after game after game. While she apologizes and demurely at
first insists, it’s just beginners’ luck, Heller, who started out with some
noble attempts at good sportsmanship, begins to change his attitude and his cool.
Tensions mount as Weller’s bridled restraint becomes more violent in exact
ratio to Fonsia’s self-righteousness. Out of this stressful duel, a strange
need and understanding arises between the two that, for a while, looks like it
will overcome this constant tug of war.
The mood changes as Weller and Fonsia reveal their past
hurts and bare their souls to each other. But just as in life, their desire to
be winners aggravates both Weller’s pent-up fury and Fonsia’s impulse to
retaliate against his bullying. Tyson, who won the Tony for Best Actress in a
Play for her performance in The Trip to
Bountiful, is a pleasure to watch first as a quivering lost soul looking
for support when she enters, but then again as she becomes more secure, then
slightly arrogant and finally defiant. I don’t know how many times that Tyson
said “gin,” but believe me, you’ll be amazed the variety of ways it can be said.
With so many variations on “gin” from Tyson, it was no small feat for Jones to
have as many, both comical an angry, reactions to that powerful word.
A multi-Tony winner, Jones showed his flair for comedy in
last season’s revival of You Can’t Take
It With You,” and is simply terrific. I’m no expert card-player but both
performers brought a whole new meaning to gin rummy and what it takes to play
the game of life successfully. Also impressive is the Riccardo Hernandez’s set
design with its broken down furniture and forgotten relics in a heap suggesting
what the old folks in that home have in their future. Simon Saltzman
“The Gin Game” Opened October 14 at the Golden Theater, 252
West 45th Street. Closing January 10, 2016
Tickets are available by calling Telecharge.com at
212-239-6200 or 800-447-7400 or online at Telecharge.com.
