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Scroll down to see all reviews from a publication.Biddeford Times Journal

‘Gin Game’  a triumph of acting

By Gregory Morell
Journal Tribune Arts Reviewer

Game of life plays out onstage
Review — Special to Ticket
By Elizabeth Lardie, Times Record Staff
Published:Thursday, November 5, 2009 2:09 PM EST

'Gin Game' sweet and scarySTEVE FEENEY / THEATER REVIEW
November 1, 2009

About the Playwright

D. L. Coburn (b. 1938) was born in Baltimore, MD, and had a difficult childhood due in part to the fact that his parents divorced when he was two.  He briefly served in the Navy before working in the advertising industry for most of his life.  In 1975, he married Marsha Woodruff, with whom he had two children. Coburn began writing as a hobby at the age of 30. In 1976, at the urging of his son, he returned to the abandoned project that would become The Gin-Game, the first play Coburn ever wrote. The piece went on to win the Pulitzer Prize and a Tony nomination for Best Play, and has become a staple in American regional and community theaters. Other works by D. L. Coburn include Bluewater Cottage (1979), Noble Adjustment (1985), Fear of Darkness (1995), Firebrand (1997), and The Cause (1998).

"When the play originated in my mind, it was a conflict between a man and a woman. It was not set in an old age home. I saw certain conflicts that I wanted to capture, and I felt that the simplicity of two people and a card game could express a great deal. The card game is a metaphor for fate and how the events of life are dealt to us. We have to play them as they come our way."

"I can't really recall the precise time when the characters became older. But it did raise the stakes, and of course it also altered the nature of the work. We can't even conceive of it as taking place at any other place or with people of any other age. That's one of those fortunate things that you find in the process of writing."

About the Cast

CRISTINE MCMURDO-WALLIS (Fonsia) is delighted to return to Portland Stage (The Lion in Winter, Lettice and Lovage, Christmas Carol, Noises Off, Doubt). She recently appeared as Fanny Cavendish in The Royal Family at the Swine Palace and in Rabbit Hole at Stages Repertory Theatre in Houston. McMurdo-Wallis has had a long career performing in theatres in every part of this country. Highlights include: Nickel and Dimed (original cast, Intiman Theatre, Seattle and Mark Taper Forum, LA; dir: Bartlett Sher); Angels in America, Millenium and Perestroika (ACT, San Francisco, dir: Mark Wing-Davey, Drama - Logue and Bay Area Critics Circle Awards); Mrs. Klein (American Premiere, American Stage, St. Petersburg, FL); Cymbeline (Hartford Stage and McCarter Theatre, dir: Mark Lamos), Collected Stories (Berkeley Rep, Drama - Logue Award); two seasons with Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Other theatres include: Seattle Rep, A Contemporary Theatre, Denver Center Theatre Company, Alaska Rep, The Huntington (Boston) Papermill Playhouse, Diamond Head Theatre (Honolulu, HI), New Jersey Shakespeare Festival, Coconut Grove Playhouse, Indiana Rep, Portland Stage. In New Orleans, she has premiered three works at Southern Rep (Rising Water, The Last Madame, Vulgar Soul). McMurdo-Wallis has appeared in several off-Broadway productions and with Al Pacino in Salome (Stamford, CT). Film and TV: The Hand That Rocks the Cradle, American Heart (with Jeff Bridges), The Guiding Light. Cristine is a regular narrator for Recorded Books, Inc. in New York.

J. PATRICK MCNAMARA (Weller) Mac has worked on the stage in New York, L.A., Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Southern Repertory Theatre in New Orleans, and many seasons at The Shakespeare Festival at Tulane University. Among his many film credits are two costarring roles for Steven Spielberg in Close Encounters of the Third Kind and 1941. He also played Bill’s father in Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure. He has shared scenes with Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, John Cassavetes, John Travolta, and Richard Dreyfrus. His many TV guest appearances include Dallas, Knott’s Landing, Simon and Simon, The A Team, Hill Street Blues, Roseanne, and The Young and The Restless. Mac has taught acting at Antioch College, L ‘ Universite du Nouveau Monde (Switzerland) and Tulane University. He has recently produced an instructional DVD, The Draft of Film Acting.

Designers

Sally Wood (Director) is an actor, fight choreographer, teaching artist and director. Sally has worked regionally and abroad. Recent directing credits include The Taming of the Shrew with the Fenix Theatre Company and Doubt and The Drawer Boy at Portland Stage. Sally is thrilled to be making Portland her home and looks forward to directing The Gin Game this fall at Portland Stage.

Anita Stewart (Set Designer, Costume Designer) has worked as a set and costume designer at leading theatres across the country, including: the Guthrie, Seattle Rep, Canadian Opera Company, Minnesota Opera, A.R.T., Steppenwolf, Hartford Stage, Dallas Theater Center, Long Wharf Theatre, New York Theater Workshop, Boise Contemporary Theater, New Jersey Shakespeare and Portland Stage Company. Anita's desire to play a meaningful role as an artist in a specific community brought her to Portland Stage Company in Maine as Artistic Director, a company for which she had previously done significant freelance design.

Shannon Zura (Lighting Designer) Shannon Zura is happy to be returning to Portland Stage Company. She recently designed the lights and sound for Bloomsburg Theatre Ensemble*s production of Leading Ladies, the lights for Opera House Arts* A Midsummer Night*s Dream, the sound for the world premiere of House, Divided at InterAct Theatre Company, and the lights for Portland Stage Company*s Longfellow: A Life in Words.  Additional design credits include the sound and lights for InterAct Theatre Company*s productions of Kiss of the Spider Woman and American Sublime and the sound designs for Philadelphia Shakespeare Theatre*s The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), Romeo and Juliet, and Taming of the Shrew. In March 2005, Shannon was featured in Stage Directions Magazine*s salute to outstanding women in theatre.  Shannon holds an MFA in Lighting Design from Temple University and is currently an Assistant Professor of Theatre at the University of Southern Maine.

Stephen Swift (Sound Designer) Stephen is thrilled to be back at Portland Stage (previous designs include The Drawer Boy, Out of Sterno, Doubt, Indoor/Outdoor, and Augusta).  He currently lives in Boston and is the Sound Technician for the Brandeis Theater Company. Special thanks go out to Agent K.

Shane Van Vliet (Stage Manager) Shane is thrilled to be back at Portland Stage Company for her second season. Before starting at PSC, Shane worked with numerous different companies. She stage managed national and international tours with Jean Ann Ryan Productions, Two Bean Productions, Theatreworks and The Radio City Rockettes. She worked on productions in New York City with The Phoenix Theatre Ensemble, Turtleshell Productions, and T. Schreiber Studios and she spent some time in Buffalo, NY with The Kavinoky Theatre and Sheas Performing Arts Center.