Nause and O’Brien join a long list of amazing actors in The Gin Game

In his autobiography Dick Van Dyke said learning the lines of The Gin Game was one of the hardest things he had ever done.  Van Dyke played Weller alongside Mary Tyler Moore as Fonsia in the 2003 made-for-television version on PBS.

Allen Nause agrees and said this play has been one of the biggest challenges of his acting career. He said while the lines and emotions required are demanding, it is the choreography of the cards and the games played that makes this production unique.

“There’s no other play like it,” Nause said in an interview with Marty Hughley of The Oregonian. “You think of the classic Aristotelian play – it has exposition, antagonism, rising action, falling action, all that stuff. But in this, the form is 15 games of gin.” Click here to read the rest of the preview article.

Van Dyke and Moore, Nause and O’Brien are among a long list of award-winning actors that have played the card-playing duo on stage and television since the play’s Broadway premiere in 1977 starring Jessica Tandy and Hume Cronyn. With this dynamic duo at its helm, the play was an immediate hit, garnering four Tony award nominations: Best Play, Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Director. In 1978, it was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. In 1997, the play was revived on Broadway, starring Charles Durning and Julie Harris. Once again, The Gin Game was a stunning success and was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Production of a Revival. Since its premiere, The Gin Game has been performed in virtually every theatre-going country in the world.  

The word is out and tickets are flying out the door! Click here to get yours today. The Gin Game runs through April 28 on the Morrison Stage. 

The Gin Game is presented with support from CFM Strategic Communications, Charlotte Rubin and Hugh & Mair Lewis Schwartz.