In light of one of Topdog/Underdog’s primary themes, destiny, a Pausch quote springs to mind: “We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.”
Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer Prize-winning two-hander, which centres around a pair of card-hustling brothers, also explores the history of racism in America, toxic masculinity, greed and violence.
The inherent tension within Parks’ script is a true gift, with rhythmic dialogue often spat out like a rapper’s rapid-fire flow and making our heads spin. Being brothers with chequered histories, they certainly know which words to pull out and use as weapons for maximum impact. Onstage tension sizzles.
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As the play progresses, we find ourselves increasingly attached to these characters thanks to incredible performances by Damon Manns (Lincoln) and Ras-Samuel (Booth), both of whom are making their MTC debut. Manns and Ras-Samuel are onstage together for the majority of this play’s two-plus hours duration and their complex sibling dynamic is artfully portrayed.
The story goes that after Lincoln’s wife Cookie kicked him to the curb, he moved into Booth’s manky, single-room basement flat – with no running water or toilet facilities – under sufferance.
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A mattress on the floor, a recliner (Lincoln’s ‘bed’) and a makeshift table – constructed from milk crates and a sheet of cardboard – form the basis of Sophie Woodward’s set. There are also some exposed water pipes, which Booth uses to perform pull-ups.
To say that The Lawler – set up in thrust-stage mode for this production – is an intimate space would be a gross understatement. And audience members feel dangerously close to the sticky pages in Booth’s porno mags.
Throughout the course of Topdog/Underdog, we learn that Lincoln and Booth’s parents abandoned them. Their mum left first, leaving Booth with $500 stuffed into a stocking. Two years later, when Lincoln was 16 and Booth was 11, their dad also left to pursue a new romantic partner. This time Lincoln was handed $500 wrapped in a handkerchief. While Lincoln has blown his “inheritance”, Booth’s remains untouched.
Later on in the play, Lincoln reveals their drunken father’s idea of a joke was naming his boys after a dead president and his assassinator. Disturbingly, Booth carries a gun on his person at all times.
When Booth isn’t “boosting” (shoplifting) goods from stores, he practises the art of card throwing, hoping to follow in the footsteps of his big bro Lincoln who used to dominate that scene.
Having shunned the card-shark life after his “stick man” was shot dead, Lincoln now ekes out a living as a whiteface Abraham Lincoln impersonator – fake beard and all – at a local arcade, where (mostly white) punters pay to play the role of John Wilkes Booth, shooting at him with cap guns to recreate the president’s assassination.
Renowned stage and screen actor Bert LaBonté makes his mainstage directorial debut with Topdog/Underdog and every single minute of the action captivates. When asked during an interview what kind of energy he wanted to bring into the room as director, LaBonté said: “As humans, we want to laugh first. That’s what we want to do. You’re immediately comfortable if you laugh first.”
And we laugh heaps during this MTC production of Topdog/Underdog, which makes the inevitability of tragedy – the brothers’ predestined path – all the more devastating. Surely Lincoln and Booth can rise above their bleak upbringings and impoverished circumstances, right? Just go see this unmissable play.
MTC’s Topdog/Underdog plays at The Lawler, Southbank Theatre until 21 September. Get tickets here.
