Premiering just as the millennium had turned, Suzan-Lori Parks’ “Topdog/Underdog” still has my vote as the best American play of the 21st century. It’s a phenomenal piece of writing, a poetic feast that manages to be rich in symbolism while still making you feel like its two brothers exist in real life. Booth and Lincoln are both emblematic and (pulsing) flesh and blood.
So if you’ve never seen this work, which has been produced several times in Chicago and was revived on Broadway in 2022 in a phenomenal production from director Kenny Leon, I endorse a trip up to Portage Park to see the new Gift Theatre production from director Shanésia Davis, starring Gregory Fenner and Martel Manning, even though the staging is not all I had hoped.
The production, which is enhanced by a cool sound design from Michael Huey, starts out well enough as Fenner’s Booth reveals his optimism and determination to succeed in a cruel America, both as a street hustler and an enthusiastic lover. (Fenner keeps up that energy all the way through the show). Manning’s Lincoln soon arrives, fresh from the amusement arcade where he dons white-face makeup and gets shot at by revelers re-creating a presidential assassination as a leisure activity. As soulless as the job may be, it is gainful employment and Lincoln is terrified that he may soon by replaced by a mannequin. I’ve seen “Topdog” many times before but this time, its prescience struck me anew as I saw how Parks was anticipating here the crisis about to befall the American worker of the 21st century. Not a mannequin for a most of us to worry about, for sure, but maybe artificial intelligence is not so different. That is all to Manning’s credit; he captures Booth’s inner fear very well.
But “Topdog” is a relentless play, constantly building in tension and compounding its crises: you have to believe that the pressure on these two brothers is so intense that either of them may explode at any moment, most likely resulting in mutually assured destruction. And in Act 2, somehow, the pot goes off the boil and spends too long on a simmer. Some of that is a simple matter of pacing, which I am guessing will improve as this run goes along (I saw the final preview), but involves Manning really inhabiting this brilliantly intelligent character and showing us the gulf between his abilities and his soul-sucking situation. The show also seemed reluctant to commit to the whiteface device so critical to understanding what tricks are being played on Lincoln’s soul.
I think the trap in the play is that of cynical acceptance; it’s not always obvious but Parks’ brothers are all-American fighters, through and through, even when it may seem otherwise. Lesser talents would be down for the count. In the end, you have to leave the theater with a fuller understanding that America is all the worse for how brutally it has limited their aspirations. You do indeed feel some of that here, for these all are skilled and talented artists working on an intimate setting from Jessica Kuehnau Wardell, but not fully at the level that this remarkable script can achieve.
Chris Jones is a Tribune critic.
cjones5@chicagotribune.com
Review: “Topdog/Underdog” (2.5 stars)
When: Through Oct. 20
Where: GIft Theatre at the Filament Theatre, 4041 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Running time: 2 hour, 35 minutes
Tickets: $35-$45 at 773-283-7071 and thegifttheatre.org