Stage Left Theatre aims to embrace history ‘for the good and the bad’ with ‘Topdog/Underdog’ led by nationally award-winning director, actor

Can a name decide your fate? Does birth order play a role in where you end up in life?

In “Topdog/Underdog,” written by Suzan-Lori Parks, audiences meet African-American brothers Lincoln (Shaune Gardner) and Booth (Matt Slater).

Yes, those are the character’s actual names.

Lincoln is living with his younger brother Booth in a room in a boarding house after his wife kicked him out. Booth reminds Lincoln that this arrangement was meant to be temporary, but Lincoln reminds Booth that his work as a whiteface Abraham Lincoln impersonator (Another “yes, really” moment) at an arcade is their only source of income.

Both brothers hate the work Lincoln does, and Booth tries to persuade Lincoln to return to running games of three-card monte, something Lincoln has sworn off after a member of his crew was killed.

Booth meanwhile aspires to replicate his brother’s success and constantly practices his three-card monte routine in the apartment. The act isn’t as smooth as his brother’s once was though.

As the days go by, Lincoln and Booth deal with poverty, work, racism and women and reflect on their lives after their parents abandoned them as teenagers.

“Topdog/Underdog” opened off-Broadway in 2001 and moved to Broadway the following year. The play won the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, and the 2022 Broadway revival won the Tony for Best Revival of a Play.

The play, directed by Malcolm Pelles, runs Friday through June 29 at Stage Left Theater.

Pelles has been speaking to Stage Left staff about producing “Topdog/Underdog” since 2022 when he directed Stage Left’s nationally award-winning production of Antoinette Chinonye Nwandu’s “Pass Over.”

Pelles saw “Topdog/Underdog” on Broadway in 2002, with George C. Wolfe directing Jeffrey Wright as Lincoln and Yasiin Bey (then known as Mos Def) as Booth at the Ambassador Theatre.

“It left an impression on me, even back then,” Pelles said. “It’s a play I haven’t been able to get out of my mind for 20-plus years. It’s really a pleasure and a blessing to be able to direct this.”

“Topdog/Underdog” and “Pass Over” were both written by Black playwrights, and Pelles is proud to be bringing plays written by Black women to Spokane.

“For me personally and for Stage Left, it’s intentional in terms of picking playwrights that this community needs to see their work,” he said. “It’s intentional, and hopefully it becomes a broader trend.”

Pelles worked with Slater in “Pass Over” and points to his skill in balancing dramatic and comedic moments. Pelles had seen Gardner in a few productions around town, including Spokane Civic Theatre’s production of Lynn Nottage’s “Sweat,” which was also written by a Black woman, and was impressed by his work, as well.

Early in production, the trio focused on the text. From there, they began sharing personal relationships with their parents and siblings, birth order and sibling rivalries.

Pelles is the youngest in his family and said at family gatherings he’s still seen as the baby, “for better or for worse.”

Pelles thinks birth order plays a big part in the relationship between Lincoln and Booth. Booth is looking to stop being seen as the younger brother and become equal, if not better than, his older brother. This ambition brings their sibling rivalry to a head.

Throughout the play, Lincoln and Booth talk about their versions of their family history. Some memories line up. Other memories the brothers have made up. Pelles said it’s a metaphor for how society views history.

“The play offers a gateway for the audience to grapple with how history is handled in a larger society,” he said. “Obviously, Lincoln and Booth are references to history and references to the Civil War era and eras involving U.S. slavery and the Confederacy and that part of U.S. history, and the play asks the audience to grapple with how that history is represented, as well.

“I think that’s very timely. We’re in a place right now where truth and the accuracy of history is under attack with the banning of books, and history being revised in public schools, and the suppression of DEI, and the erasing of history on government websites, all these things happening around us. In this play, the brothers’ relationship, but also through some of the historical references, ask you to take a step further as an audience and ask these questions about the larger society.”

At one point in the play, Lincoln talks about how people like history to unfold the same way they’ve folded it up. While there are many who feel that way today, Pelles said there are also people who crave the truth.

“The truth helps inform the future and helps us not repeat mistakes of the past and helps society as a whole move forward in a more positive way,” he said. “It’s OK to embrace history for the good and the bad and the beautiful.”