Bursting with big ideas audaciously, exuberantly, and often humorously expressed, Topdog/Underdog set fire to the Broadway stage and grabbed last year's Pulitzer Prize the day after it opened. This thrilling comic drama of two brothers specializing in the sidewalk hustle known as three-card monte digs deep into the existential dilemmas of being African-American and male in the United States.
This production explores race, family and the weight of America's collective history. From the first African-American woman to win the Pulitzer, Topdog/Underdog tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names, given to them as a joke, foretell a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by their past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future.
Booth is a hopeful three card monte master Lincoln, who works at a side show which employs him as a shooting gallery target, dressed up like his presidential namesake. Searching for direction and affection while living in a decrepit boarding house room, the siblings play out the symbolic and surreal power play set up by their weighted names.
Parks was also nominated for a Tony Award. Her other plays include In the Blood, The America Play and Venus.