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Larry Gillard Jr., left, and Harold Perrineau star as brothers in “Topdog/Underdog.”<

‘Topdog’ a compelling exploration of brotherhood

Rhea Cortado (Contact)
Published: Thursday, February 19, 2004

“Topdog/Underdog” Ahmanson Theater

From the beginning, playwright Susan-Lori Parks sets up history to repeat itself with two brothers named Lincoln and Booth in her Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Topdog/Underdog.” Parks pushes the pun further with Lincoln’s job: role-playing as President Abraham Lincoln in white face makeup at an arcade as kids re-enact the assassination of the president by shooting him in the back with a cap gun.

Throughout the play, only the two brothers are seen on stage in a rundown one-bedroom apartment. The deliberately opposing personalities of the characters made it difficult to form an opinion against either one. A fault for one character could be argued as a strength in the other.

The most compelling aspect of the play is the constant competition between the two brothers for the audience’s favor. The way that Parks unfolds a relatively simple situation is actually entertaining, yet provokes questions about the big brother/little brother dynamic in general.

Lincoln, the older brother – played by Harold Perrineau, best known for his role as Mercutio in Baz Luhrmann’s “Romeo + Juliet” – is a former legendary three-card monte hustler who is now a frustrated man of honest employment in poverty.

The younger brother, Booth, played by Larry Gillard, Jr., is more sentimental, constantly dragging out old memories of childhood, a trait that eventually leads to his breakdown. Booth’s delusions of grandeur – hustling at three-card monte – can’t be achieved without Lincoln’s expertise.

Parks’s control of the two characters through their language is what separates the play from good to prize-winning. Booth rattles off like a speed freak to match his jittery mannerisms and quick hand as a thief. His hyperactive energy illustrates an anxiousness to grow up and catch up to Lincoln. Though Lincoln supposedly is the top dog, Booth steals every scene where he is present. At the same time, when Booth becomes dramatic, he equally goes over the top, so much that it looks too theatrical.

Lincoln’s words, in contrast, are smooth with a poetic rhythm. Though he is obviously frustrated with their economic position, he never lets on about any emotional weakness, sustaining the top dog position in the brotherly relationship. Even as Booth throws verbal punches at Lincoln’s speculated impotency, Lincoln lets it slide and sways on with the bottle of liquor in hand. The tragedy of their relationship is Booth’s struggle to resolve the gap between them, as Lincoln maintains their distance.

Between the brothers’ joking about the daily grind, serious psychological issues like parental abandonment and strange sexual situations get slipped into the conversation as Parks teeters between doses of comedy and drama. The play’s indecisiveness proved to be a benefit in showing what theater can achieve with only two characters. The only thing that “Topdog/Underdog” lacked was the happy ending that the audience knew could not be.

–Rhea Cortado