He wears a long frock coat, top hat, beard and whiteface, but this is a “sit-down job” with a regular paycheck and benefits.

The job Lincoln got, ironically, is a gig at an arcade playing Abraham Lincoln sitting in the box at the theatre tourists and other customers pay to shoot at him with a real gun, albeit one retrofitted to shoot caps.

Booth is infatuated with Grace, a local girl, who used to be Lincoln’s wife Cookie threw him out, mistaking his depression for a lack of They are temporarily living together in Booth’s apartment Booth, his younger brother, is a wanna-be in the con game, and at the moment wholly dependent on his brother for money coming into the household. Lincoln, the older, was well-known on the streets as a three-card monte dealer, but quit and got a job-with a paycheck and benefits. The brothers are named Lincoln and Booth, which is fitting as they are smothering in sibling rivalry and resentment. One, including each, need each other, want each other’s admiration, and want to They love and hate each other, trust each other and trust no At times, especially during the first act, there is almost an echo of ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’ in the pacing, in the way the memories they hurl at each other are twisted, and in their mutual gaslighting. Certainly, the past informs their relationships-with each other, with women, with Lincoln’s boss, with strangers on a bus. “Topdog Underdog” isn’t an easy play the brother’s lives are complicated, and there is so much damage from the past that it has blocked their abilities to plan ahead or even see a future. It’s not afraid to go places that are dark and damning. is about more than two sad lives-it is an indictment of the systemic failures that permeate too many lives, particularly minority lives. Uneducated, poor, black, abandoned by their parents a long time ago, and never part of a safety net-the odds are so stacked against them that it’s a testament to the human spirit that they managed to grow up and survive for as long as they did. This is an intense theatrical experience because there’s just no way forward for these two brothers.

Davis (Booth) and Jeremy Keith Hunter (Lincoln) in Topdog/Underdog from WSC Avant Bard.

Topdog underdog review