After a heady season that included such challenging works as Copenhagen and Three Tall Women, Palm Beach Dramaworks lowers its sights a few notches with its summer offering — D.L. Coburn’s card table skirmish, The Gin Game. True, the two-character serio-comedy won the 1978 Pulitzer Prize, but it was hardly an adventurous choice by the award committee or by the West Palm theater company.
This tale of two elderly residents of the seedy Bentley Home for seniors, who meet, bond and battle over hands of gin rummy, has its merits. But rather than a play of substance with staying power, its chief asset is the pair of juicy acting roles that a couple of veteran performers can take and sprint away with.

Director J. Barry Lewis has two such actors, though so far they seem to be occupying different plays. As Weller Martin, the curmudgeonly, foul-mouthed loner with a temper that flares with each lost hand of gin, Peter Haig is showy and volatile. Barbara Bradshaw, however, is after something more subtle as Fonsia Dorsey, the strait-laced, easily offended newcomer, whose winning hands are reflected in her facial expressions.
Both are fine, but for the play to ignite, they need to find more common ground, even though their characters operate on different wavelengths. Missing is that intangible quality called chemistry, as well as the more concrete matter of comic timing, which would help Coburn’s numerous punch lines pay off.
Haig and Bradshaw have performed together more than two dozen times before, so it seems likely that they will eventually settle in to complementary rhythms of this combative duet. It just has not happened yet.
Fonsia is a new arrival at Bentley, being treated for diabetes. Weller’s condition is less medical, for he is a compulsive card player, whose ego is wrapped up in his wins and losses at gin. She expects the game to be a harmless recreation, but his competitive spirit and cursing soon rub off on her.
Gin rummy makes a weak spectator sport, and once we see the lopsided results of their games, the play gets a bit repetitive. As they chat, Fonsia and Weller do toss out some wry observations on the warehousing of the elderly, but the second act’s puncturing of their mutual protective armor of lies feels way too tidy.
Lewis does what he can to counteract the play’s natural static nature, moving his actors around Michael Amico’s artfully seedy porch set. Coburn’s insertion of a lightning storm at the play’s climax is heavy-handed, but lighting designer Ron Burns obliges effectively.
If only lightning had struck throughout the rest of the production.

The Gin Game
B-
Where: Palm Beach Dramaworks, 322 Banyan Blvd., West Palm Beach.
When: Through Aug. 15.
Tickets: $42-$44. Call: (561) 514-4042.
The verdict: Adequate, but unexceptional performances cannot mask the weaknesses in this two-character battle of wits and cards.