‘The Gin Game’ opens Friday at Little Theatre

D.L. Coburn’s Pulitzer Prize-winning “The Gin Game” opens Friday at the Little Theatre of Owatonna.
“It’s a great play about two older people in a nursing home who get locked into a battle of wills, if you will,  over the game of Gin Rummy,” Director Jeffrey Jackson said. “Of course, it’s more than just about Gin Rummy.”
The two characters reveal something about each other while playing the game. “It really is interesting seeing how they relate to one another and issues of age and a lot of other issues come up,” said Jackson.
Jackson said “The Gin Game” was the first play he saw on Broadway when he was a college student. “I traveled up to New York City and saw the show with Jessica Tandy and E.G. Marshall,” he said, adding that he remembered looking in the playbill and reading that Marshall was a native of a small Minnesota town: Owatonna.
“Ever since I saw it, I thought I want to direct this show,” Jackson said. “This is the perfect show to do during the pandemic because it’s a two-person cast and they will be on stage for pretty much the entire show.”
The play stars Kristin Sellentine as Fonsia Dorsey and Bill Wood as Weller Martin. “They are elderly people who meet in a nursing home and they start playing cards and talking and she is more of a prim and proper seeming person and he’s got a potty mouth which she doesn’t really like,” Sellentine said of the two characters.
“She has a little family, but they never visit and so she’s just come to the nursing home and is not adapting quite well,” Sellentine said.
The Weller Martin character struggles to get the upper hand in their series of games. “I think he’s kind of a loser,” actor Bill Wood said. “He’s not quite sure of himself … and he’s ended up here because he doesn’t really have any friends.”
When asked whether there is a particular character the audience will begin to root for in this game of wills, Sellentine said, “There’s probably someone they’re going to root for about halfway through.”
“Typically, you only have to learn lines, but here they not only had to learn lines but also to draw and discard during their lines,” technical director Kathy Purdie said of both actors’ commitment to their roles. “That’s been the hardest part is to know when to draw and discard.”
Sellentine said the play is perfect for older audiences. “I think there will be a lot of people who can relate to the feelings that Fonsia and Weller both have about being in this nursing home and being at this stage of life,” she said.
“Be prepared; this is probably not your mom and dad,” Jackson said of the play’s content. “The language does get a bit much.”
The play will have some laughs in store for the audience and a good amount of drama to go along with those laughs. “I think the seriousness creeps up on you and as the show goes on, it does get very serious,” Jackson said.
“The Gin Game” will be showing at the Little Theatre of Owatonna on April 23, 24, 30 and May 1 at 7:30 p.m. and April 25 and May 2 at 2 p.m.  Audiences will also be able to purchase a virtual ticket to see the show online at the LTO website.