Emotional play 'Topdog/Underdog' offers Detroit audiences thrills despite imperfections
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A bracing two hours of emotional wreckage is in the cards for audience members who report to Detroit Repertory Theatre’s production of Suzan-Lori Parks’ Pulitzer and Tony-winning “Topdog/Underdog,” currently running through Dec. 17.
Set somewhere around present day (it originally premiered in 2001 but notably doesn’t involve cellphones, for instance), the two-man drama is a harsh look at the relationship between two African American siblings grappling with extreme poverty and the fallout from their ugly childhoods that saw them abandoned by their parents as children and left to fend for themselves.
Despite the play’s great acclaim in the theater world, Parks’ script is full of a few too many long, tortured speeches. Worse, it tips its hand a little too often from even the very beginning, naming the two brothers Lincoln and Booth and almost immediately presenting a loaded gun onstage. (Guess how it ends!)
One of the brothers is a wannabe card hustler on the city’s streets; the other, a retired legend in the same circuit. Director Yolanda Jack gets great mileage out of the thrilling card demonstration sequences, leaving you to wonder how the actors can concentrate on so many things at once. She also coaxes a few big laughs from the audience and nicely navigates the constantly see-sawing power balance of the two characters from scene to scene, especially in some of Lincoln’s sadder moments.
The tremendously moving Will Bryson quietly dominates the production, bringing a soulful pathos to his Lincoln that lingers long after the show ends. Will Street has the showier role in the spastic Booth, but struggles with finding more subtle moments between the character’s frequent shouting rants. Kudos are deserved for magic and card consultant George Tate, who helped make the games — and the stakes — feel real.
Some puzzling lighting choices led to major shifts in brightness and tone across single scenes, which felt odd given that it all takes place in one studio apartment. The rather talkative audience at the Saturday, Nov. 11 performance offered roaring approval at curtain, applauding an overall entertaining production.
"Topdog/Underdog" runs through Dec. 17 at Detroit Repertory Theatre. Tickets can be purchased at www.detroitreptheatre.com.
Contact Free Press arts and culture reporter Duante Beddingfield at dbeddingfield@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Detroit play 'Topdog/Underdog' emotional, thrilling, but imperfect
