Winner of the 1978 Pulitzer Prize. The play writer uses a game as a metaphor for life. Weller Martin is playing solitaire on the porch of a seedy nursing home. Enter Fonsia Dorsey, a prime, self-righteous lady. They discover they both dislike the home and enjoy gin rummy so they begin to play and to reveal intimate details of their lives. Fonsia wins every time – and their secrets become weapons used against one another. Weller longs for a victory to counter a lifetime of defeats but it doesn’t happen. He leaves the stage a broken man and Fonsia relizes her self-righteous rigidity has led to an embittered, lonely old age.
