they were not playing very well.
i have two questions about the sentence" they were not playing very well. "

Question1. what does the sentence in this passage mean?

Question2. how to make the full use of the sentence in our daily life? can you give me some dialogues?

this phrase comes from Friends (American TV series)

here is the whole passage:

Mrs. Geller: What that Rachel did to her life.... We ran into her parents at the club, they were not playing very well.

Mr. Geller: I'm not gonna tell you what they spent on that wedding... but forty thousand dollars is a lot of money!

Mrs. Geller: Well, at least she had the chance to leave a man at the altar...

Monica: What's that supposed to mean?

Mrs. Geller: Nothing! It's an expression.

Monica: No it's not.

Mr. Geller: Don't listen to your mother. You're independent, and you always have been! Even when you were a kid... and you were chubby, and you had no friends, you were just fine! And you would read alone in your room, and your puzzles...

Thank you for helping me !does the sentence"they were not playing very well. " mean they are not happy?

Question

they were not playing very well. 
i have two questions about the sentence" they were not playing very well. "

Question1. what does the sentence in this passage mean? 

Question2. how to make the full use of the sentence in our daily life? can you give me some dialogues?

this phrase comes from Friends (American TV series) 

here is the whole passage: 


Mrs. Geller: What that Rachel did to her life.... We ran into her parents at the club, they were not playing very well.



Mr. Geller: I'm not gonna tell you what they spent on that wedding... but forty thousand dollars is a lot of money!

 

Mrs. Geller: Well, at least she had the chance to leave a man at the altar...

 

Monica: What's that supposed to mean?



Mrs. Geller: Nothing! It's an expression.



Monica: No it's not.

 

Mr. Geller: Don't listen to your mother. You're independent, and you always have been! Even when you were a kid... and you were chubby, and you had no friends, you were just fine! And you would read alone in your room, and your puzzles... 

Thank you for helping me !does the sentence"they were not playing very well. " mean  they are not happy?

Answer

This means that they are not very nice to each other.  They don't get along with each other.  Basically it makes a comparison between the parents and young children.  Normally you would say that children don't play well together if they get into fights or something like that.  Adults who don't play well together are probably being immature towards each other and also not nice to each other.
"Her cat and my dog don't play well together". - They probably fight a lot.
"The children don't play well with the new kid" - For some reason, the children do not get along with the kid.
"My brothers came to the family reunion, but they don't play well" - My brothers probably argue a lot, or just don't talk to each other most of the time.  At least, they do not have friendly conversations with each other.