TopDog/UnderDog Review

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Date posted July 26, 2002

TopDog/Underdog is on Top!
by Michael Wills, Jr,
photos by Katrina Shakarian

Suzan-Lori Parks has proved herself a literary genius. The words that she produces for her characters are genuine outpourings of humor, imagery, and imagination. As a man, my pride will not allow me to admit that my eyes watered during her new play Topdog/Underdog, at the Ambassador Theater – so I won’t. While watching this play, I constantly expressed amusement but soon became contemplative.

The play tells the story of two blood brothers named, whimsically, by their father, Lincoln and Booth. One is a former card shark and an Abe Lincoln impersonator, the other, a student of the three-card-monty con game. All the scenes are set in their studio apartment (minus the bathroom and kitchen).

Their names alone foreshadow events that are bound to come, but that is not the most important premise. The primary recurring image is the game of Three Card Monty. Lincoln, once a hustler, used the profits from this con game to keep himself and his brother out of poverty. Lincoln has since reformed, but Booth wants the once-plentiful income to continue, so he begins practicing the Three Card Monty routine, while stealing to make ends meet. Throughout the performance, he urges his brother to revert to his scamming days or, at least, teach him the routine. This goes on throughout most of the play.

The subtext of this play is the reality of the world’s “Top Dogs.” If a person is on top then, logically, someone is on the bottom. This is also demonstrated by the mechanics of Three Card Monty. There is always ONE person who wins (TOP DOG) and ONE person who knows where the card it (TOP DOG) and the loser then becomes (obviously) the UNDERDOG. This message directly corresponds to our society, the land of the haves and have-nots.

The lighting for the play was also an important element in the entering performance. The shadows of the characters could be treated as separate characters for they foreshadowed probable events.

This show is ideal for anyone who wants a good laugh and for one who is looking for first-class drama. It will make the most ludicrous heckler stop and think about the welfare of the brothers and people in similar situations and make the most monotonous bookworm succumb to fits of laughter.