‘Gin Game’ Fills the Bill at McCallum

The McCallum Theatre, celebrating its 10th anniversary, hooked a big catch with “The Gin Game,” though at first it looks like a little tadpole.

“The Gin Game” is a two-character drama focusing on a card game. When D.L. Coburn’s play was first produced in 1976, it was in the tiny American Theatre Arts (now demolished) in Hollywood. Though the play later became a Broadway hit and a Pulitzer Prize winner, it hardly sounded like an appropriate choice for the 1,125-seat McCallum.

This is no ordinary “Gin Game,” however. Julie Harris and Charles Durning are the cast. It’s the National Actors Theatre production, staged by Charles Nelson Reilly, seen recently on Broadway.

A few details of the card game itself are hard to make out from the far reaches of the McCallum, but a sound system projects nearly every word clearly. While one would prefer to see this in a smaller space, the actors and Reilly and possibly Coburn (who reportedly revised the script before this production) make sure that the emotions are big enough to fill the hall.

For example, as the play begins, the Bentley Nursing and Convalescent Home seems more a prison than ever, as old man Weller wistfully hears a train pass by on the other side of the fence. And when 71-year-old Fonsia (Harris) enters the sun porch, she is sobbing, while the 1977 published script simply describes her as “lost in thought.”

When her gin rummy adversary Weller (Durning) reaches the height of his rage over Fonsia’s almost unbroken string of victories, he collapses over the table, while in the published text he merely slumps his shoulders after exhausting his anger. We know Weller had a previous heart attack, so in this staging we briefly wonder if he’s dead--until Durning slowly rises and exits.

This may sound like one grim play, but in fact this production adds a moment of dancing for the two characters that lightens the atmosphere, and it’s also quite funny.

Sketch comedy troupes have realized for years that the idea of people getting carried away with the competitive aspects of an ostensibly relaxing parlor game is almost unfailingly amusing to the uninvolved spectator. Harris and especially Durning get all the laughs inherent in Coburn’s play.

But they also don’t want us to be uninvolved. This play can get people riled up. It’s not one of those cozy palliatives in which cute old-timers overcome initial hostility and fall in love. Its final impression is so uncompromisingly dark that it probably isn’t the best choice for someone who needs to be cheered up.

Weller’s apoplexy, arising from Durning’s amply proportioned body and flushed features and directed at the still waif-like Harris, is genuinely fearsome. Earlier, Durning’s impatience as Harris displays snapshots of her grandchildren is palpable. His courtly bow when he first apologizes is not entirely convincing.

With her crinkly voice, Harris makes Fonsia more sympathetic, but she also gives her a few moments and habits that seem rather odd, as when she makes a cooing noise or delivers a funny little interpretation of “Stars and Stripes Forever.” Her despair is finally big enough to fill even the McCallum.

BE THERE

“The Gin Game,” McCallum Theatre, 73-000 Fred Waring Drive, Palm Desert. Tonight-Saturday, 8 p.m.; Saturday, 2 p.m.; Sunday, 7 p.m. Ends Sunday. $35-$65. (760) 340-ARTS. Running time: 2 hours.