The play previously received a limited commercial run in San Francisco in 2003 through Best of Broadway (now SHN) at the Curran Theatre. Winner of the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Topdog/Underdog by Suzan-Lori Parks returns to the Bay Area for its first locally produced professional staging.

In 2002, San Francisco Chronicle theater critic Robert Hurwitt, who also served on the Nominating Jury that recommended Topdog/Underdog as its top pick to the Pulitzer Prize Board, wrote, “The complex interweaving of social, imagistic and emotional metaphor beneath its surface makes as richly provocative as it is undeniably powerful.” Trapped by their poverty, family history and ominously prophetic given names, these two black men soon realize they are locked in a dangerous game of deception, sparring over just which one’s the Player and which one’s the Played. “An utterly mesmerizing evening of theater ” ( Var iety), Topdog/Underdog delves into the rivalry of two brothers – Lincoln, the elder, is trying to make a go at honest work after years of hustling three-card monte and Booth, the younger, is a wannabe looking to learn the tricks of his brother’s illegitimate trade. I am particularly excited by the potential conversations that Topdog and our spring production of Matthew Lopez’s The Whipping Man will inspire in our lobby and in our community.” “Rarely has the theater seen the kind of brilliance that Suzan-Lori achieved with the story of Lincoln and Booth: ill-fated brothers condemned by their very names to play out the tragedy of America’s troubled, brutal legacy of race. “I am delighted that MTC is a part of the tenth anniversary celebration of this remarkable, historic and profound American play,” artistic director Jasson Minadakis said. Local spoken word artist Biko Eisen-Martin returns to the region for his first Bay Area production since 2009 and also his first as a member of Actors’ Equity Association. The first locally produced professional staging, MTC’s production coincidentally marks the tenth anniversary of the first and only Pulitzer Prize for Drama win by an African-American woman. Acclaimed regional theater director Timothy Douglas directs this “thrilling comic drama vibrates with the clamor of big ideas, audaciously and exuberantly expressed” ( The New York Times).

MILL VALLEY, CA- Marin Theatre Company continues its 2012/13 Season with Suzan-Lori Parks’s Pulitzer Prize-winning play Topdog/Underdog, which runs from September 27 to October 21. September 27 – Octo| Opening Night: October 2 FIRST (AND ONLY) PULITZER PRIZE FOR DRAMA WINįEATURES RETURN OF BAY AREA SPOKEN WORD ARTIST BIKO EISEN-MARTINĪND MTC DEBUT OF ACCLAIMED REGIONAL THEATER DIRECTOR TIMOTHY DOUGLAS

Broadway topdog underdog