Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks starts with incomprehensible babble and segues into comprehensible babble. More of a vaudeville turn with two terrific actors than a play, it gives us brothers named Lincoln and Booth, with Booth (Mos Def) the verbal one, the rapper, as a petty thief, and Lincoln (Jeffrey Wright), a black man playing Lincoln in whiteface in a carnival, the physical comedian. Wright's miming is super, especially as he drunkenly shows Lincoln being shot several ways. As an entertainment, it can be fun for an audience that understands the jive lingo. Others stare in blank noncomprehension at the verbal barrage and the antics of the brothers as they drink and talk shit.
Although the performances are quite good, and the direction of this non-play by George C. Wolfe probably fulfills the author's vision, I don't find the analogy profound, the show particularly moving, or the theatrical experience as a whole worth a full evening's attention.
