3/26. Tuesday. First preview of The Gin Game (1976) by Donald L. Coburn at Artists Repertory Theatre. Two septuagenarians met on the porch of a nursing home, and struck up a friendship by playing a game of gin. Both have no other friends, nor visitors. The woman is always winning, the man toggles between paranoia/anger and caring (seems too exteme and too quick). Discussion about the fellow inmates and their former lives turns into a game of probing and winning (a bit too quickly here too). Maybe 90 minutes is not enough to more realistically portrait the mental transition.
Very good acting: Allen Nause as Weller, Vana O'Brien as Fonsia. Vana is especially good making herself look old. Stage is good, but could use more plants and lighting scheme. If they didn't mention it in the dialog, I wouldn't be able to tell that it's a sundeck. Small intimate theatre of 180 degree. The lobby is spacious, modern, comfortable and pleasant, with art works on the wall for sale. The red building looks like a warehouse from outside.
