Topdog/Underdog

I've been thinking about sibling rivalry and was taken in with the relationship between Lincoln & Booth. The course of this tragedy was not surprising however it left a deeper ache because it felt inevitable in some ways. Sort of like the set-up of 3-Card Monte, cycles of trauma that continue to repeat.

"Topdog/Underdog" is about the struggle for power in a fraught binary of brotherhood: Lincoln is staying with his younger brother Booth (their father had a sense of humor) while he struggles to make a living as a Lincoln impersonator at a fairground. It is a play about identity: what does it mean to "impersonate" Lincoln if you ARE Lincoln? History lurks fatalistically at the edges of the stage - do their names link the brothers together forever in a Cain and Abel struggle? Do we all just replay the fratricidal violence of the past eternally? Does national history overlap, eventually becoming coterminous, with family memories?

Full review at:

http://sycoraxpine.blogspot.com/2007/01/week-2-play-2-topdogunderdog-jan-8-14.ht...

I liked the concept, storyline, and character development in the America Play better,though I did appreciate the intimacy and interaction between the two brothers.

This is an interesting play, though I feel after reading it as if I need to see it produced. By the end, some of the ideas felt like they'd been overworked, but as a whole, it was a good read. As plays go, it is much easier to read than they generall are. There are few characters, and the story is pretty easy to follow, though I do think seeing it staged would add a great deal. If you have a chance to see this in the theater, go. If you want a play to escape into for a bit, though, this isn't a bad choice.