The Gin Game is a 1977 play by Donald Coburn.
The play only features two characters. Weller is an old man who has been at the rather dingy Bentley Nursing Home for a couple of months. He meets Fonsia, an old lady and a recent arrival. Both seem rather lonely; no family members ever visit and they don't have any friends at the home. Weller invites Fonsia to pass the time with him by playing gin rummy.
This turns out to be a mistake. Fonsia winds up beating Weller at gin every single time they play, even though when she first sat down, he had to explain the rules. Weller gets angrier and angrier as his losing streak continues, and starts getting increasingly hostile towards Fonsia. Insults start flying, words are said that can't be taken back, and as the two seniors dig up increasingly unpleasant truths about each other, their nascent friendship is threatened.
The original production of The Gin Game was directed by Mike Nichols. Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy originated the roles of Weller and Fonsia. Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore played the parts for a 2003 performance that was adapted by Coburn for television and filmed and broadcast on PBS.
Tropes:
- Adaptation Expansion: The 2003 TV production has a scene in which Fonsia moves in to the home and has to endure the humiliation of giving up may of her possessions, since she has too much for her room. Fonsia also has a couple of unpleasant confrontations with a nurse at the home who treats her like a child. (In the original play, Weller and Fonsia are the only speaking parts.)
- Blatant Lies: "Gin's a very relaxing game," says Weller, as he's showing obvious signs of agitation over losing to Fonsia yet again.
- Bleak Abyss Retirement Home: The Bentley Nursing Home is a grim and sad place. The staff isn't actively abusive, but it's still a place where the elderly are basically left to rot. It isn't a very well-built place either, being dingy and dilapidated. Weller calls it a "slum" and a "warehouse for the intellectually dead" and is disgusted when the roof starts leaking from the rain.
- Comforting Comforter: Weller puts his jacket over a crying Fonsia after she admits that her son actually lives in town but still never visits. It seems like their relationship might have turned a corner, but after that, he wants to play gin again...
- December–December Romance: Hinted at, and a couple of times seems about to happen, like when Weller and Fonsia dance. Ultimately averted as Weller and Fonsia's bad personality habits wreck the romance before it even really gets started.
- Downer Ending: Fonsia and Weller basically destroy each other. After losing to Fonsia at gin one last time, an enraged Weller smashes the card table with his cane and then shuffles off, a broken man. The last line is a sobbing Fonsia moaning "Oh no."
- Dramatic Thunder: Thunder and lightning is heard outside as the conversation between Fonsia and Weller gets more and more personal and ugly.
- Flipping the Table: An enraged Weller flips the card table over after one too many losses to Fonsia. It's a distinct negative turning point in their relationship.
- Games of the Elderly: Weller and Fonsia get to know each other as they play gin rummy.
- The Ghost: Fonsia's son Larry, who never visits. It turns out that Fonsia cut Larry out of her life after he said he was going to try and look up his long-lost father, Fonsia's alcoholic ex-husband.
- Job Mindset Inertia: Weller says that after his father retired from business, he still kept coming in to work, and kept doing so until he died at 83. That line gets more poignant later when Weller reveals that he was booted out of his own business by his partners.
- Minimalist Cast: There are only two characters in the play, and for that matter only one set, the sun porch where they play cards.
- Precision F-Strike: Fonsia nags Weller about his constant swearing. Near the end, however, when things have gotten really nasty between them, he calls her an idiot. An enraged Fonsia says "Don't you call me an idiot, you fuck!", and then sits in shock and says that she's never said that word before.
- Serious Business: Gin rummy, apparently. Weller gets steadily angrier as he keeps losing to Fonsia, lashing out, insulting her, flipping the table. His rage attacks destroy their friendship.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Weller curses more and more as he gets angrier and angrier as he loses and loses to Fonsia at gin. Prim, proper Fonsia tells him he shouldn't talk like that.
- Speech-Centric Work: Two characters have increasingly angry, emotional, and uncomfortable conversations as they play gin rummy.
- Throwing the Fight: Weller's increasingly nasty temper tantrums after he keeps losing to Fonsia lead to her, at one point, deliberately letting him win. This backfires, as he sees through it instantly and just gets angrier.
- You Just Told Me: Weller says that he doesn't believe Fonsia's son Larry lives in Denver: he thinks that Larry actually lives in town and that he doesn't visit because he doesn't like her. When a sobbing Fonsia asks how he knew, Weller says "I was just guessing!"
