James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson Have Chemistry — That's the Trouble

"The Gin Game" suffers from an unusual problem: James Earl Jones and Cicely Tyson share a tender chemistry. 

This should be an asset. After all, chemistry like theirs makes characters real, and relationships palpable. Without a doubt, the two of them together in a different show would be romantic comedy gold.

But D.L. Coburn's 1977 play doesn't have a sentimental word. And it's funny, certainly, but not romantic. Instead, "The Gin Game" is a vicious look at the ways we turn on others when our losses pile up and our vulnerabilities are exposed.

The plot is simple. Two elderly people meet on Visitor's Day at the dilapidated old age home where they live. No one has come to visit them and no one will. To pass the time, they start playing a card game on the porch that begins as a lark and ends as a battle of wills. 

But as directed by Leonard Foglia, this production never turns into a strategic assault. Instead, the audience — trained to laugh at almost every line by the warm, gently humorous first act — keeps laughing as insults start being shot across the table. There's never a sense of menace or impending danger. It's more, "Oh no, he didn't!" then "How could he!"

The result is unsatisfying. Jones and Tyson are worth a better hand.