Reviews of Two River Theater Company Topdog Underdog
Brandon J. Dirden (left, as Lincoln) and Jason Dirden (every bit Berth) in TOPDOG/UNDERDOG at Two River Theater Company in Red Bank, NJ. (Photo credit: T. Charles Erickson)
Lean in close and scout them now, lean in close: you don't want to miss this.
TOPDOG/UNDERDOG is Suzan-Lori Parks's play of alliance and betrayal, of the (perhaps but apparently) shared struggle to survive in a harsh and unforgiving social terrain, of conmen and the bamboozled. A decade agone, the play exploded onto the phase of the Public Theater and later Broadway to announce itself and Parks to whatever who may not accept been paying shut enough attention to her before course- and tradition-defying work every bit powerful voices in the aesthetic discourse of a new century. At present, on the tenth anniversary of the play'due south Pulitzer, TOPDOG/UNDERDOG is setting the stage of Red Banking concern's Two River Theater ablaze with the power of what is surely among this young century'southward almost of import plays.
So lean in shut, because this show is what theater ought to be: assuming, funny, grippingly tense, heartfelt, and unapologetically relevant. And productions of this magnitude are equally fleeting as they are rare.
Under the direction of the playwright, and starring real-life brothers Jason and Brandon J. Dirden, this TOPDOG/UNDERDOG oozes actuality. It feels like the play coming alive from Parks'south script in withal pure and unadulterated a fashion that theater might let, and the consequence is to invite the states deep into the centre of this play. Parks (who says that she comes to this play fresh, later on a decade of little to no engagement with it) finds and underscores the fractured essence of the play's brothers, while the Dirdens exercise not seem e'er to shy from evoking their ain brotherly bail in the service of characters divers almost entirely by their fluctuating relationship to each other. The three artists combine to bring the brothers' tattered social and domestic environments into the precipitous focus needed to testify us two brothers fighting to stay united in the confront of a social order and their own selfish aspirations that would bulldoze them into disharmonize.
Brandon J. Dirden (left, as Lincoln) and Jason Dirden (as Booth) in TOPDOG/UNDERDOG at Two River Theater Company in Red Bank, NJ. (Photo credit: T. Charles Erickson)
A two-man play set entirely in a seedy boarding house room, TOPDOG/UNDERDOG shows u.s. the unsubtly named brothers Lincoln and Booth equally they struggle to become by in a cold and unsympathetic society. Elder blood brother Lincoln is a legendary three-card monte hustler who abandoned the cards when his partner was murdered, and now works at "a sit down down job with benefits" impersonating his namesake in an arcade attraction where tourists pay for the thrill of assassinating Honest Abe with a cap gun to the back of the head. Younger brother Berth lives off his unparalleled shoplifting skills and a share of Lincoln's salary, but his real aspiration is to ascend to the levels of success and notoriety at three-card monte once occupied past his brother.
Booth begs his brother to come dorsum into the hustling game with him, or at least to show him a few moves, but Lincoln has sworn off the cards similar a recovered alcoholic swears off the bottle, adamant non to put himself in position for relapse. The play's ebb and flow sees Booth at one time defiantly adamant to strike out on his own, but painfully aware that he needs his blood brother's guidance, and Lincoln trying to hold the line against his old life, while sliding ever closer dorsum into the street hustle. Together, this family of ii struggles to detect its niche in an indifferent social textile while e'er aware that their personal ambitions may not beck visitor.
TOPDOG/UNDERDOG's pulse is the vibrant interplay of its two characters, at all times both united and offset, a rhythm expertly achieved past the Dirden brothers. Though they are family, Lincoln and Booth'due south most essential characteristics are those which distinguish them from each other. Older brother Lincoln is experienced, jaded, and patient whereas Berth is broken-hearted, eager, and idealistic about the easy money simply waiting for him and his brother to snatch upwardly off the street. Accordingly, Brandon J. Dirden's Lincoln is slow in his gate and methodical in his speech, while Jason'south Booth is manic to the point of skittish, with a hustler's quick rhythmic diction.
Both actors envelop themselves in Parks'southward prose poetry, but the different ways they deploy it opens a window to their characters. Brandon's Lincoln channels his namesake with a measured, deliberate voice communication pattern, delivering the winding rhythms of his words in a weathered baritone that suggests experience and the cautious knowledge that danger awaits he who would rush also quickly ahead. If Lincoln is the orator, Booth is the street bard, looking and sounding like he is fresh from a poetry slam. Jason'due south spoken language is lively, quick, high-pitched, and delivered in the cadenced pulses of costless verse. The actors' mannerisms friction match their speech—equally Lincoln is smooth, calculating, and confident, while Berth is frenzied and often agitated—and then exercise their characters' identities. Berth never realizes that the key to moving frontward is slowing downwards and matching rather than overpowering his brother'due south rhythm.
Brandon J. Dirden as Lincoln in TOPDOG/UNDERDOG at 2 River Theater Company in Red Bank, NJ through September 30. (Photo credit: T. Charles Erickson)
Similar any great family drama, the most gripping tension of TOPDOG/UNDERDOG comes in the places where the primordial bonds of family are tested and strained the most. Parks's direction oft highlights these moments by making the most of the brothers' cramped living space (set designer Christopher Akerlind wonderfully condenses Ii River'due south playing infinite—which has the capacity to be much larger—in order to concentrate the tension of confinement). Often the 2 brothers square off at the small phase's reverse extremes, and circle each other similar boxers or balderdash fighters, looking for an opening at which to strike. Fraternal bond or not, Booth wants nada more than to usurp his brother'due south place as Topdog, but Lincoln is prepared to offer no quarter.
Ii River'south production of TOPDOG/UNDERDOG shows marvelously that this play is equally vibrant and firsthand every bit information technology was upon its opening and as it has remained for a decade. Parks has said that it is "a play about family wounds and healing." Abandoned past their parents as children and scorned by a rigid society, all these brothers seem to have at their disposal for survival is each other. The clear brotherly bail between Brandon and Jason Dirden provides that starting point, merely the conman hearts of Lincoln and Berth chop-chop expose their family'due south wounds, and calls into serious question the admission that they, their guild, or any of us have to healing.
TOPDOG/UNDERDOG
Written and Directed by Suzan-Lori Parks
September 8 – September xxx, 2012
2 River Theater Company
21 Span Avenue
Ruddy Banking company NJ, 07701
732-345-1400
http://world wide web.trtc.org/
livingstoncortild.blogspot.com
Source: https://www.stagemagazine.org/2012/09/a-powerful-topdogunderdog-at-two-river-theater-company/
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