Just Playin' at Open-Door Playhouse

            Lee Franklin’s play Just Playin’ focuses on a group of men at a rustic cottage in Maine celebrating the 25th Anniversary of their regular poker game. The next day, their wives (in one case, an ex-wife) gather at the same cottage (after the guys have left) to play Mahjong. The Mahjong game is also marking its 25th Anniversary.

            The longevity of these activities suggests that the participants are not kids. These people, boomers all, are in fact seniors. The things that they talk about during the course of their games include what you would expect from people of their generation: aging, their gradual physical decline, sex, memory issues, their grandchildren, the senility and demise of relatives from the generation that preceded them, and concerns of their own mortality. The one divorced man, tormented by regret, is experiencing clinical depression.

            What these men and women have are the friendship and genuine regard that they have for each other. None of them will have to face their difficulties alone.

            Lee Franklin is the playwright. The UConn graduate resides in Maine. His previous plays include The Sea Nest, Isaac, and The Thesis. A member of the Dramatists Guild, he is also an actor and director.

            Open-Door Playhouse will present this play online in podcast form in two parts: Starting November 16, Part One will depict the poker game. Part Two, debuting November 23, will depict the Mahjong game. Both parts will continue to be available on the Open-Door Playhouse website.

            Part One is directed by Dennis Gersten and stars David Purdham, Gary Lamb, Rick Friesen, Allan Wasserman and Jimmy Gleason.

            Part Two is directed by Rachel Berney Needleman and stars Elizabeth Wells, Alexis Genya, Anne Cooper, Noelle Evangelisti and Rosemary Thomas.