Bibliography and Further Reading

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

Sources

Brustein, Robert, “On Theater—A Homeboy Godot,” in the New Republic, May 13, 2002, p. 25.

Fanger, Iris, “Pulitzer Prize Winner Shakes Off Labels,” in the Christian Science Monitor, April 12, 2002, p. 19.

Garrett, Shawn-Marie, “The Possession of Suzan-Lori Parks,” in American Theatre, Vol. 17, No. 8, October 2000, p. 22.

Gutman, Les, Review of Original Off-Broadway Production of Topdog/Underdog, in CurtainUp, http://www.curtainup.com/topdog.html (accessed November 24, 2004).

Isherwood, Charles, Review of Topdog/Underdog, in Variety, Vol. 383, No. 11, August 6, 2001, p. 25.

Newsmakers, “Suzan-Lori Parks, 1st Black Woman to Win Pulitzer for a Drama,” in Jet, Vol. 101, No. 19, April 29, 2002, p. 25.

Parks, Suzan-Lori, Topdog/Underdog, Theatre Communications Group, 2001.

Peyser, Marc, “Topdog on Broadway,” in Newsweek, April 22, 2002, p. 64.

Pochoda, Elizabeth, “I See Thuh Black Card . . .,” in the Nation, Vol. 274, No. 20, May 27, 2002, p. 36.

Sommer, Elyse, “Topdog/Underdog Moves to Broadway,” in CurtainUp, http://www.curtainup.com/topdog.html (accessed November 24, 2004).

Wilkerson, Margaret B., “2001–2002 Best Play: Topdog/Underdog,” in The Best Plays of 2001–2002, edited by Jeffrey Eric Jenkins, Limelight Editions, 2003.

Wilmer, S. E., “Restaging the Nation: The Work of Suzan-Lori Parks,” in Modern Drama, Vol. 43, No. 3, Fall 2000, p. 442.

Further Reading

Elam, Harry J., Jr., and Robert Alexander, eds., The Fire This Time: African-American Plays for the 21st Century, Theatre Communications Group, 2004.

Drawing inspiration from a collection of essays popularized by James Baldwin, Elam and Alexander present an anthology of African-American plays showcasing a wide range of artistic styles and voices. The collection includes works from August Wilson, Kamilah Forbes, and Hip-Hop Junction, along with Suzan-Lori Parks’s In the Blood, a narrative about a homeless black woman and her children.

Fornes, Maria Irene, Plays: Mud, The Danube, The Conduct of Life, Sarita, PAJ Publications, 1986.

Cuban-American playwright Maria Irene Fornes, known for engaging audiences through unconventional methods like using language instruction tapes and marionettes, has significantly influenced American theatre since the 1960s. Fornes prioritizes the needs of her characters over ideological constructs, crafting avant-garde plays that are both stark and lyrical, centered around characters seeking meaning amidst psychological oppression.

Mahone, Sydné, Moon Marked and Touched by Sun: Plays by African-American Women, Theatre Communications Group, 1994.

This anthology includes works by playwrights such as Adrienne Kennedy, Thulani Davis, Kia Corthron, and Suzan-Lori Parks. Mahone highlights a transformation in the consciousness of black women that has greatly contributed to the fight against racial and sexual oppression in society. Each work is accompanied by in-depth interviews where the playwrights discuss the role of the artist in commercial theatre.

Smith, Anna Deavere, Fires in the Mirror, Anchor Books, 1993.

Through interviews with witnesses of New York City's 1991 Crown Heights racial riots, Fires in the Mirror showcases a diverse array of characters and perspectives via a series of monologues. These narratives illuminate the racial tensions dividing the city. By contrasting her characters' distinct personalities, Anna Deavere Smith reveals fundamental human truths, merging elements of theatre, journalism, and social commentary into an artistic whole.

The Play

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

Set in a seedy urban studio apartment, Topdog/Underdog explores the relationship between two brothers, Lincoln and Booth, so named as a joke by their father. A former master of the con game three-card monte, Lincoln earns his living by donning whiteface and impersonating Abraham Lincoln in a local arcade, where patrons pay to re-create the former president’s assassination with an assortment of cap guns. He has recently been kicked out by his former wife, Cookie, and has moved in with his younger brother, Booth. Nicknamed 3-Card, Booth earns his living by stealing, or “boosting” as he calls it, what he needs. He dreams of becoming a more accomplished and celebrated dealer of three-card monte than his brother. The first half of the play develops this central...

(This entire section contains 909 words.)

Unlock this Study Guide Now

Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.

Get 48 Hours Free Access

conflict: Lincoln is content to work at the arcade, earn his paycheck, and take his dose of whiskey, which the brothers affectionately call “med-sin,” while Booth dreams of the prestige, the money, and the women that could be his, with Lincoln’s help, as a hustler of three-card monte.

Lincoln resists Booth’s attempts to draw him back into the world of three-card monte. He left the game when his partner was murdered, and though he resents his position at the arcade, he is glad to earn an honest living and even takes a certain pride in his work. In a scene that is both humorous and foreboding, Lincoln practices his arcade routine with Booth, who suggests that he make the assassination more dramatic. Lincoln experiments with several groans and gestures as Booth pretends to shoot him. In contrast, Booth finds Lincoln’s job demeaning and tries repeatedly to persuade Lincoln to pick up the cards so they can work as a team. The siblings take different approaches to their struggle for survival; when Lincoln receives his paychecks, one of the first items in the budget is the bottle of whiskey that takes their minds off their dismal surroundings and their bleak prospects.

In their cramped and dilapidated quarters, Lincoln and Booth relate to each other in primarily combative ways. Though they share lighthearted, even mutually respectful moments, as when Lincoln brings home his paycheck, or when Booth shows Lincoln the new suits that he has boosted from a department store, the brothers exhibit an increasing level of tension in their relationship. Several elements establish the foundation for their conflict and foreshadow an ultimately violent confrontation between the brothers: the details of their family history, remembered differently by each brother; Lincoln’s playful but biting sarcasm with regard to Booth’s love life; the implication that Booth has betrayed Lincoln with his former wife; and Lincoln’s continued refusal through most of the play to teach Booth the secrets of three-card monte. Moreover, the play’s central image of a president and his assassin contribute to the uneasiness of the play.

Lincoln returns home in the fifth scene of Topdog/Underdog to find Booth expecting a visit from his girlfriend. Lincoln has just lost his job at the arcade and squandered the money from his final paycheck. While he is still hopeful of his girlfriend’s imminent arrival, Booth slowly realizes that she has stood him up. In this moment, when both brothers are vulnerable, they begin to discuss their past: the departure of their parents, the $500 left to each brother by their parents, and their efforts to support each other in the wake of their abandonment. “I didnt mind them leaving cause you was there. Thats why Im hooked on us working together,” Booth says. “If we could work together it would be like old times.” Lincoln finally relents and decides to show Booth the tricks of three-card monte. Encouraged at first, Booth soon discovers that he has much to learn and, when the lesson is over, he storms out of the apartment with his revolver to search for the woman who stood him up. “Thuh world puts its foot in yr face and you dont move,” Booth says in response to Lincoln’s objections. “You tell thuh world tuh keep on stepping. But Im my own man, Link. I aint you.”

Lincoln returns home in the play’s final scene with a pocket full of winnings, having made a successful and lucrative return to the streets. Drunk and self-satisfied, Lincoln relents when Booth suggests that they wager money on a game of three-card monte. Lincoln puts up the money he hustled during the previous evening, and Booth wagers his legacy of five hundred dollars, the inheritance that he received from his mother. Overly confident and eager to prove himself the equal of his brother, Booth realizes too late that he has been hustled and picks the wrong card. As Lincoln prepares to open the tied stocking holding Booth’s money, Booth reveals that he has killed his girlfriend. Lincoln offers to return his winnings, but Booth flies into a rage and orders him to open the stocking. As Lincoln prepares to cut it open, Booth grabs him from behind and holds a gun to his neck; and after a slight hesitation, he pulls the trigger. “Ima take back my inheritance too,” Booth says as he picks up the stocking. “It was mines anyhow. Even when you stole it from me it was still mines cause she gave it to me.” He kneels beside the body of his brother and starts to sob, letting the stocking slip to the floor.

Dramatic Devices

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

Parks sets the tone for the relationship between Lincoln and Booth with their names, suggesting an opposition that will culminate in violence. She further foreshadows a disastrous end throughout the play. In the opening scene, Lincoln returns home in his costume and whiteface, and a startled Booth draws his gun. “You pull that one more time,” Booth yells, “I’ll shoot you.” In scene three, Booth pretends to shoot Lincoln in order to help him practice his routine; but Lincoln’s exaggerated death throes disturb him. “Something about it,” he explains to Lincoln. “I dunno. It was looking too real or something.” The animosity that builds between the brothers, Booth’s quick temper and bravado, and the presence of a gun, all signify the likelihood of bloodshed.

Parks also uses the three-card monte game as a central metaphor in the play. The game relies on deception and distraction, and its premise is that one can win only when they are allowed to win. “Cause its thuh first move that separates thuh Player from thuh played,” Lincoln explains after he has defeated Booth in the play’s final scene. “And thuh first move is to know that there aint no winning.” Lincoln understands the nature of the game. In a broader sense, this understanding characterizes Lincoln’s approach to life. He is satisfied to reenact the assassination of his namesake for paying customers. In three-card monte, as in life, there is no winning. In contrast, Booth cannot see this principal. He still believes that he can win; when he loses, with his girlfriend Grace, and ultimately with Lincoln, his only recourse is violence.

The Play

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

Topdog/Underdog is divided into six scenes, spanning approximately one week from a Thursday night to a Thursday night. The time of the play is specified as “now,” and the location as “here.” The set throughout is the seedy rooming-house room of two brothers, Lincoln (Link) and Booth (3-Card). The characters’ names were their father’s idea of a joke, but they also serve as to foreshadow the troubled relationship between the two men. Link works at an arcade, dressing up in whiteface as Abraham Lincoln and “dying” on cue when “shot” by customers. Booth wants to be a three-card-monte hustler; he works on his routine and tries to get Link, who was once apparently an especially proficient “thrower,” to teach him his tricks; Link refuses.

The next scene opens with Booth reaching inside his large coat and pulling out two complete suits of clothes, which he has stolen. When Link enters with his paycheck, Booth talks about impressing his girlfriend, Grace, and convinces Link to give him more than his share of their money. The scene ends with Link practicing his arcade act.

Late that night, Booth brags about his sexual escapades of the evening, but it soon becomes clear that Booth is at least exaggerating and probably making up the entire story. The conversation turns to cards, and Link offers to set Booth up with his old crew. Booth will, however, need a better weapon than the “pop gun” he currently carries. The men also discuss the prospect that Link might soon be replaced by a wax dummy at the arcade. Booth wonders if Link fears that someone might come to the arcade with a real gun, but Link professes no uneasiness. Booth then coaches Link on his death scene but ultimately abandons the effort.

Early the next morning, Link, still in his costume, awakens and strips to his underwear, ripping his fake beard in the process. This is particularly troubling, because his job was already in jeopardy. He begins to reminisce about his days as a hustler and ultimately sets up a game of three-card monte. He is clearly far better at it than is his brother, who, unbeknownst to Link, watches intently.

Late Wednesday night, Booth is wearing his new suit; he has prepared a romantic dinner, also stolen, for himself and Grace. Link enters, having lost his job. Booth tries to get rid of him, as he expects Grace any minute; she is already very late. The two men recollect their parents’ each giving one of the then-teenage boys five hundred dollars and immediately disappearing. Link then proceeds to give Booth a lesson in three-card monte. With Link “throwing,” Booth guesses the correct card twice in a row and struts around, while Link seems deflated. Booth’s own attempts at throwing, however, are even more amateurish than they were in the opening scene. When Link glances at his watch and discovers that it is 2:00 a.m., Booth storms from the apartment.

The next night, Link enters with a wad of money, apparently won at three-card monte. Booth tells his brother that Grace has proposed to him and that Link will have to move out, as Grace will be moving in. Booth says he will survive without Link’s paycheck by throwing cards. Link is openly derisive, so Booth challenges him and wins again. Then he introduces money into the game, claiming it does not seem real without something at stake.

Despite Link’s protests, Booth bets the “inheritance” he received from his mother against the five hundred dollars he knows Link brought home with him. This time, however, Booth loses. Link collects the money, which is tied up in one of their mother’s stockings. As Link takes out a knife to cut the stocking, Booth confesses that he shot Grace. Link tries to return the money he just won, but Booth, angry at being treated like the little brother, sticks his pistol into Link’s neck and fires. Link collapses, while Booth mutters about how his brother stole his inheritance. Finally, he starts to gather the money but crumbles to the floor, clutching his dead brother’s body.

Historical Context

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

The Assassination of President Abraham Lincoln

As the American Civil War neared its end, President Abraham Lincoln and his wife, Mary Todd Lincoln, went to see a performance of the musical comedy Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C. While Lincoln was seated in his balcony box, John Wilkes Booth, an actor and Confederate sympathizer from Maryland, slipped into the president’s box and fired a single shot at close range with his Deringer pistol, shouting, “Sic semper tyrannis!” (“Thus always to tyrants”). Some accounts suggest Booth also declared, “The South is avenged!” Booth then jumped to the stage below, injuring his leg in the process, and fled the scene on horseback. Lincoln, gravely injured, was carried across the street and fell into a coma until he died the following morning, on April 15, 1865. Booth was treated for his injuries while on the run but was fatally shot when found hiding in a barn in Virginia.

Blackface

Blackface minstrelsy was one of the most popular forms of live entertainment in America before the Civil War. Minstrel shows featured white performers who wore blackface makeup to mock the mannerisms and speech of Southern slaves or freed slaves in the North. These performances often included exaggerated singing and dancing routines. The entertainer Al Jolson brought this tradition to the big screen in the film The Jazz Singer, the first motion picture with synchronized sound. In Topdog/Underdog, Parks subverts the blackface tradition by having Lincoln, a black character, don whiteface to portray the very man who emancipated the slaves.

Literary Style

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

Naturalism

Unlike some of Parks’s other plays, Topdog/Underdog is grounded more in realism. The set design reflects social realism, and the play is naturalistic in how Lincoln and Booth react to external forces, like poverty, that shape their lives, as well as internal desires and ambitions that drive them mentally. The brothers are influenced by deterministic sociological and economic forces, pushing them to consider a life of petty crime. Additionally, Booth’s candid discussions about his sexual needs highlight how strong biological instincts also guide his choices. Primal forces like fear and the need for escape, whether through alcohol or sex, play significant roles in the narrative. While characters in naturalistic dramas or fiction are sometimes seen as victims of fate, Parks refrains from making moral judgments about her characters. She presents the material objectively, allowing the audience to determine whether to view life pessimistically or optimistically.

Humor

Parks frequently uses humor to highlight the tragedy of a situation, providing a contrast to the harsh realities faced by the play’s protagonists. Humor lightens the pathos, especially when a character seems to struggle against a lifelong sense of stagnation. For instance, Booth’s efforts to win Grace back after a two-year separation are portrayed comically when he tells Lincoln that he has stolen a “diamond-esque” ring that is slightly too small for her. Booth’s intention is that, once the ring is on her finger, she won’t be able to return it like she did before. Booth believes he is being “smooth” to avoid rejection, but this humorous scene underscores how he is, as Lincoln says, always “scheming and dreaming.” Booth’s desperation would be tragic if his plan to win Grace wasn’t so amusing.

Humor is also used in the play to contrast comedy with moments of stark realization. For example, when Booth returns from the department store wearing multiple layers of stolen clothes, the visual effect is comical because the audience sees that his stealing prowess matches his audacity. “I stole and I stole generously,” Booth declares. When Lincoln tries on his new suit and remarks that clothes don’t make the man, he subverts a common saying: just wearing a fake beard and hat doesn’t make him a great man. “I was Lincoln on my own before any of that,” he asserts. Ironically, Lincoln seems less downtrodden and more hopeful once he dons the new suit. Another example of comedy highlighting moments of clarity occurs when the brothers rehearse Lincoln’s dying scene. This scene is uproariously funny despite the fact that Lincoln’s future job may be on the line.

Language

Booth and Lincoln both communicate in a street vernacular that is both powerful and poetic. Their language is laced with profanity, which directly attacks the core of the person it targets. By omitting apostrophes in contractions, Parks, inspired by the renowned Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, crafts a language on the page that feels immediate and unrefined, yet it possesses a sense of realism that mirrors her characters' authentic selves. They are uneducated but savvy, and the phonetic spellings underscore this lack of refinement. Moreover, the play’s dialogue is a joy both to read and hear. The brothers wield words like weapons to erode each other's confidence, creating a verbal onslaught that is sometimes mesmerizing and at other times threatening.

Stage Directions

In the Author’s Notes to the play, Parks provides a brief guide to understanding her “slightly unconventional theatrical elements.” Among these are spells and rests. Spells are marked by the repetition of character names and have an “architectural look.” No dialogue is spoken during a spell; instead, they help characters reveal “their pure true simple state.” Parks leaves further interpretation up to the director. Rests, however, are similar to musical rests, allowing the actor a moment to pause, breathe, or transition.

Media Adaptations

Download PDF PDF Page Citation Cite Share Link Share

While there is no audio recording of the play's production available, a DVD titled The Topdog Diaries offers a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the rehearsals for the Off-Broadway production of Topdog/Underdog, directed by George C. Wolfe at New York’s Public Theater. This performance stars Don Cheadle as Booth and Jeffrey Wright as Lincoln. The Topdog Diaries was produced by Storyville Films and can be found through most online film retailers.

Previous

Critical Essays

Next

Teaching Guide

Loading...