May 2003
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May 2003 |
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Departments |
The Gin Game
It's like the years haven't passed. It's exactly the same!" observed Dick Van Dyke about his reunion with longtime friend and co-star Mary Tyler Moore for the PBS Hollywood Presents production of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Gin Game, airing Sunday, May 4 at 9 p.m. on WHYY TV12. The beginning of production marked the first time the two had acted opposite each other since cameras stopped rolling on The Dick Van Dyke Show 37 years ago, in which they starred as husband and wife. "We've kept in close touch with each other over the years," said Moore, "and always wanted to work together again. We've just been looking for the right project."
"When I saw the original Broadway production," said Van Dyke, "I knew it would be a perfect vehicle for us. I said to Mary, 'We'll do it when we're old enough.'" Van Dyke and Moore's unique rapport was immediately evident on The Gin Game set. Both were on-camera almost continuously, primarily seated at a card table. The dialogue, warm and comical one moment, would turn acrid and sharp the next. The production required shooting eight pages of dialogue a day, as opposed to the typical two to three pages for a feature film. And through it all, the two had to go through the motions of playing gin, picking up and discarding cards whose face values according to the script had nothing to do with the actual cards they were holding. "We never faced anything quite like this, remembering lines and playing gin at the same time," said Van Dyke. "On a descending degree of difficulty, there's the Iditarod, a triathlon, then The Gin Game, he joked. For their roles as Fonsia and Weller, both Moore and Van Dyke wore hair and makeup that aged them considerably beyond their years. "Thirty years ago, it took three hours of makeup to make me look like an old man," said Van Dyke with a grin. "Now, it just takes three minutes." The Gin Game features a scene in which Fonsia and Weller dance together that was not in the original Broadway production. Playwright D. L. Coburn, who adapted the play for television, added the waltz for the Broadway revival that starred Charles Durning and Julie Harris. This brief scene conveys even more emotional power in the PBS Hollywood Presents production, given the history of its two stars. "Working with Mary in something that's so completely different from anything we've done before has been very rewarding," added Van Dyke. "When I was asked why would anyone ever touch this play again since it was already done by Hume Cronyn and Jessica Tandy [in a 1981 production for PBS' American Playhouse], I responded by saying that I felt Mary and I could bring something to it that wasn't there before -- a certain attraction between the two characters. The audience would want very much to see Fonsia and Weller get together. I wouldn't have done this production with anybody but Mary."
The Gin Game airs Sunday, May 4 at 9 p.m. on WHYY TV12. |
©2003
WHYY, Inc
Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore reunite in a new adaptation of this award-winning play
The Gin Game is a bittersweet comedy revolving around recently arrived nursing home resident Fonsia Dorsey (Moore) and longtime tenant Weller Martin (Van Dyke). Both are lonely in their ramshackle surroundings and, over a series of gin rummy games, they become acquainted. As the games progress, their personalities and histories unfold, and a battle of wills ensues. Only the fear of loneliness and hunger for companionship keep them returning to the table in hopes that the next game will be different.