PicksInSix Review: Topdog/Underdog-Steppenwolf Theatre Company
Sterling Version of “Topdog/Underdog” at Steppenwolf!
PicksInSix® Review | Guest Contributor | Ronald Keaton
There is a great deal to admire about the fast-moving production of “Topdog/Underdog” at Steppenwolf, now running through November 1 in their Downstairs Theater. Originally done here in a lauded 2003 production, this sterling version of the remarkable Suzan-Lori Parks play lives up to every bit of expectation a theatregoer might conjure. The writer won a Pulitzer, after all. And it's steered by one of America's great, innovative directors in Kenny Leon, whose previous experience with this piece would seem to offer an expert's path to its fruition.
Let's begin with the language in the play. Ms. Parks has created an endlessly rhythmic verbal sound with a tempo and pace that rapidly pulls us along. It's nothing short of miraculous in its thoroughly absorbing word-music approach to the story, while in the next moment, it's guttural and emotional and rhapsodic all at once. It's a unique retelling of the Cain and Abel saga of two brothers sharing a dingy apartment—appropriately depressing and sparse in its design by Arnulfo Maldonado with gorgeous noir lighting by Lee Fiskness—as both try to survive as best they can. Then again, these brothers have been given names that rival any pair in American history for recognition and impact—Lincoln and Booth. Once we understand that they were saddled with parents of a dubious humor, we can go along for the ride of a lifetime—literally so.
Mr. Leon conducts all this so eloquently. Such conflicting ebb and flow lives in one moment, while a kind of intellectual rocket is strapped to the next in everything that is said—impactful and immediate in its layers of poetic persuasion. Enough praise cannot be offered for his guidance here, with some of the best directing strokes seen in Chicago at present from a current master of the trade.
Okay, consider some brass tacks. The brothers are thrown together in survival mode from their boyhood abandonment by their parents. And they've been stuck there. There's only one bed and no bathroom in the apartment unit they share. It belongs to Booth (a riveting, cutting portrayal by Steppenwolf ensemble member Namir Smallwood), who has no job and doesn't seem to mind it, as he's always looking for a bigger score. He constantly works on his slick three-card monte moves and patter—he has even named himself "Three-Card"—as he attempts to take up his brother's old way of working. Lincoln (Steppenwolf ensemble member Glenn Davis, so intense and emotionally committed), on the other hand, has been in limbo since his wife dumped him and simply wants to hang on to his new job as a Lincoln impersonator, complete with whiteface, at the arcade down the street. He studiously avoids the deck of cards, despite his legend, as he doesn't wish to be drawn back into hustling yet again.
But Lincoln loses his job at the arcade—budget cuts being the culprit—and the temptation of the street threatens to envelop him again. Booth tries to convince him that it's a righteous move and wants to learn more from his brother to make himself the street king he wishes to be. The brothers reflect each other in all this until a moment between them changes everything into its own kind of tragic mirror at its nadir.
This needs to be said: the chemistry between two great actors is palpable and consistent. Both these men own a real hand in sharing the Parks language and the endless rhythms so elegantly built in. Mr. Davis and Mr. Smallwood challenge each other as peers and as talents here, eye to eye. What a pleasure to see truly committed actors at the top of their game.
GUEST CONTRIBUTOR | RONALD KEATON received an Equity Jeff Award for the performance of his one-man show CHURCHILL. Coming soon, his new solo play about Ben Franklin, THE FIRST EMBASSY. www.solochicagotheatre.com.
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