TOPDOG/UNDERDOG
By Suzan-Lori Parks
Directed by Timothy Douglas
Starring Biko Eisen-Martin & Bowman Wright
Being black is not a matter of pigmentation –
Being black is a reflection of a mental attitude.
Steven Biko
Be prepared to be spellbound from the moment Biko Eisen-Martin walks on the Marin Theatre Company’s stage until the climax of this disturbing, all too real drama, two and a half hours later. You will see and actually feel this story of two brothers barely scavenging their way uphill through one disappointment after another not because of their lack of ability or ambition, but because of what they are and what they have been.
Booth (Biko-Eisen Martin) is living in a one room tenement flat with no running water that his older brother Lincoln (Bowman Wright) is sharing with him because Lincoln’s wife has thrown him out of his former home. Booth’s is the only bed and Lincoln sleeps in a recliner.
The brothers have managed to survive a rollercoaster childhood. They were abandoned by both parents two years apart; first their mother then their father. Lincoln, at sixteen, was forced to watch out for Booth who was only 11 years old. Throughout this play, Lincoln continues to worry about his younger brother. He still feels responsible for Booth’s well-being and he shields him from unpleasant truths. He gives him the food he prefers, gives him money not just for rent and utilities but for special treats that Booth doesn’t really need. Booth’s talent is stealing and he is so light-fingered he can take any product from anywhere undetected. Lincoln’s talent is dealing cards but he has given up that kind of life for a conventional one with a real job with benefits….and he isn’t doing very well.
His job is Impersonating Lincoln the day he was assassinated. He has to whiten his face to resemble the famous president and he is being paid less than the going rate for his services because he is black. He swears he likes his job because it gives him time to think about things and compose songs in his head, but he is worried he is going to be replaced by a fabric dummy. The real reason Lincoln clings to the daily grind that is wearing him down is his determination to live the conventional way with a steady job, one where he isn’t depending on his wits for fast cash. Before he started this job, he was a highly successful dealer in a Three Card Monte scam. Three Card Monte is a con game that no one can ever win.
The game is as much a performance as it is a contest that proves the hand is always quicker than the eye. Lincoln was so quick with his hands that he was the best on the street. He made more money than he could spend and he felt good about himself. His luck seemed eternal until his mark, Lonny, the man who starts the betting and keeps the game moving, was killed. In that moment, Lincoln saw the game for what it was and he knew he wanted no part of it. Still, dealing is his special gift and he is proud of what he could do. “Lucky?” he says. “Aint nothing lucky about cards. Cards aint luck. Cards is work. Cards is skill. Ain’t never nothing lucky about cards.”
Booth doesn’t share his brother’s sense of right and wrong and he is desperate to earn the kind of money his brother once did on the street. . He believes the two of them can start their own game and earn a living together. Booth is sure he can be a dealer because he is so quick and facile with his hands. He is so adept at stealing that he managed to get both them both new suits, a room divider, a blanket and food.
This play is dialogue driven and the plot takes its shape from the brothers’ rapid fire conversation. The acting is beyond wonderful and the two men manage to make their characters loveable and very vulnerable. We know that they are trapped their life because of their color and because of the disruptive, chaotic childhood that prepared them for nothing but a desperate, frustrating fight to keep their heads above water. The author Suzan Lori Parks says “There is no such thing as THE Black Experience. That is there are many experiences of being Black which are included in the rubric….What can theatre do for us? We can tell it like it is, tell it as it was, tell it as it could be.”
And in Top dog/ Underdog that is just what she does, using rich and textured dialogue delivered with consummate skill by Martin and Wright. Make no mistake. This is not a play about being black. It is about being poor and underprivileged. It is about living on the edge of society, never feeling that your humanity gives you privilege.
This production sparkles and moves at so rapid a pace one cannot believe over two hours have passed since the play began. Timothy Douglas’s direction is a masterpiece of movement and staging. The men co-ordinate their actions across the stage as if in a macabre dance. As their dialogue bounces off one another, we relive their hopes, their disappointments and we ache for them. We watch in terror as they deceive themselves and each other leading them both to their own inevitable destruction.
I realize that I’m black, but I like to be viewed
as a person, and this is everybody’s wish.
Michael Jordan
Topdog/Underdog continues through Oct. 28.
Marin Theatre Company, 397 Miller Ave., Mill Valley.
Tickets $36-$57. (415) 388-5208. www.marintheatre.org.