The Gin Game

Rob and Laura Petrie, together again? Yes indeed, and--my goodness--they toss around some four-letter words that you never heard on The Dick Van Dyke Show. In this PBS Hollywood Presents mounting of D.L. Coburn's play (memorably staged by Mike Nichols in 1981, with the late Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy), Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore star as Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey, respectively, two nursing home residents who strike up a friendship when the loner (and lonely) Weller lures Fonsia into playing gin. A neophyte at the game, Fonsia nevertheless enjoys an extraordinary string of victories (she's virtually unbeatable), stoking Weller's frustration until their initially friendly banter turns rather personal and mean-spirited (Weller: "You know what's wrong with half the people in this world? They had a mother like you."). Although Weller has the upper hand, at first, with his cheap shots, Fonsia eventually gives as good as she gets--and all the personal history that each has so casually shared during the early games is wheeled out as ammunition when tensions between the two escalate. With most of the action set at the table where the pair play, director Arvin Brown needs only to step back and let these two master thespians flex their acting chops, which they do…beautifully. This wonderful adaptation of a funny and ultimately moving play--made all the more delicious by watching TV's Petries' verbally bitchslap one another--is highly recommended. (R. Pitman)