A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity, winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama.
Suzan-Lori Parks’ play Topdog/Underdog tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke, foretelling a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment. Haunted by the past, the brothers are forced to confront the shattering reality of their future.
Topdog/Underdog was first performed at the Joseph Papp Public Theater, New York, in 2001. Its UK premiere was at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in 2003.
‘[The] speech is quick and rhythmically suprising. Parks’ dialogue is funny and distinctive and black… a great play, well worthy of its Pulitzer Prize’
— Financial Times
‘A vibrant, gritty, lyrical play full of striking moments’
— The Times
‘Exhilarating, funny but also devastatingly sad, presenting a vivid microcosm of both family relationships and the black experience in America today’
— Telegraph
