Poster for the Chinese version of The Gin Game. [Photo/bjry.com]

The Gin Game, by American dramatist Donald L. Coburn, saw its Chinese version being put on stage in Beijing on Sept 2.

Performed by Beijing People's Art Theatre for the first time in 1985, the play returned to the theater this fall.

Chinese actor Pu Cunxin and actress Gong Lijun played the only two characters in the play: Weller Martin and Fonsia Dorsey.

Director Tang Ye, who spent three years on the drama, said the two-act play is a textbook that can teach acting. It requires performers to use only dialogues to show the characters' emotional changes and personality.

"The play is extremely difficult. It focuses on the conversations of two people. Only those who are good at performing can do the play justice," Tang said.

Actor Pu discovered new things in each performance.

"We have performed it many times, yet each time it is a challenge, like climbing a mountain. I need to do it better every time," Pu said.

What left most audience puzzled was whether the two performers were really playing the game during the performance.

Tang unveiled the secret. The two actors did play the game, thus the cards they mentioned in the lines were often different from the ones in their hands.

The play, a 1978 Pulitzer-Prize winner, has impressed people by the loneliness that two aged people face.

"Everyone will become old and might have to face a lonely life. I hope the drama could help people to think about their own aging," the director said.