Topdog/Underdog by Pulitzer prize-winning Black playwright Suzan-Lori Parks is receiving its Trenton, New Jersey premiere at Passage Theatre Company, as part of its landmark 40th anniversary season. The play opens February 21, 2025, and runs until March 9, 2025, at the Mill Hill Playhouse. A darkly comic fable of brotherly love and family identity, Topdog/Underdog tells the story of Lincoln and Booth, two brothers whose names were given to them as a joke by their father, foreshadowing a lifetime of sibling rivalry and resentment.
Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 2002 and the Tony Award for Best Revival in 2023, Topdog/Underdog is a landmark in the American Theatre Canon and marks the first Broadway script in over thirty years to be produced on the Passage stage. Through professional productions, educational programs, and community engagement, Passage presents diverse voices that inspire audiences and invigorate the art of live theatre. The company is recognized for its commitment to creating and producing socially relevant plays that deeply resonate with and reflect the community.
Passage’s production of Topdog/Underdog stars Steven St. Pierre and Anthony Vaughn Merchant respectively as brothers Lincoln and Booth and is directed by marcus d. harvey. “The story of Lincoln and Booth mirrors the struggles of black men in this community who are navigating systemic challenges, seeking identity, and striving for dignity in an often unforgiving world,” harvey shared. “By bringing their narrative to life, I aim to hold a mirror to Trenton's streets, homes, and hearts, inviting conversations about brotherhood, competition, and the legacies Black men inherit.”
(LEFT) Anthony Vaughn Merchant (RIGHT) Steven St. Pierre
In the play, Lincoln and Booth were abandoned by their parents as teenagers and learned to depend upon each other for survival. Now in their 30s, the brothers struggle to escape a life of poverty. A master of the con game three-card monte, Lincoln abandons a life of crime by accepting a job where he impersonates Abraham Lincoln at an arcade. Booth, on the other hand, earns his living as a petty thief but wishes to emulate his older brother’s adeptness to “throw the cards.” Throughout the play, the brothers vie for control. At any given time, one brother may be on top, wielding power over the other, only to relinquish it in the next moment.
Parks’ dramatic play addresses themes of toxic masculinity, manhood, and violence. As director, harvey hopes “to delve into themes of identity, family ties, survival, and the masks we, as Black men, wear to navigate a world that may not always see our full humanity. This production is an opportunity to explore the fragility of dreams, the weight of history, and the human need for connection amidst conflict. It’s about asking ourselves how we reconcile the past while carving out space for the future,” he adds.
Topdog/Underdog debuted in 2001 off-Broadway starring Jeffrey Wright and Don Cheadle before moving to Broadway starring Wright and rapper Mos Def. Both casts were directed by the legendary George C. Wolfe. The play earned Parks the 2002 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, making her the first Black woman to receive the honor (Lynn Nottage is the only other Black female playwright to win the Pulitzer Prize, in 2009 and in 2017). Parks is known for challenging and reexamining the historical portrayal of the African American experience in her work. She often explores complex issues of identity and race through symbolic characters and situations.
“I actually saw the original production in 2001 at the Public Theater and the Broadway production in 2002,” harvey recalls. “I was sitting in a theater watching two of the greatest Black actors, Don Cheadle and Jeffrey Wright, go at it on stage for two hours. It lived in my bones. I watched nuances and complexities of characters (in whom) I saw my uncles, my brothers. It still sits with me to this day.”
Over twenty years since the play premiered, Topdog/Underdog still resonates with audiences. “It's a play about what we inherit. Oftentimes, in the Black community in particular, we inherit generational trauma. So, for me, the play is still relevant today as it was 24 years ago. Whenever I direct a play in general, when I first read it, I say to myself ‘what conversation is this play having with the world now?’ When Passage approached me about directing this play at Trenton, I immediately thought about all of the Black men in Trenton who have inherited generational trauma, who are grieving (in silence).”
“This play is a Trenton story,” Passage’s executive artistic director Brishen Miller said in a released statement. “Somewhere the story of brothers Lincoln and Booth is happening in Trenton as we speak and it is time for people like them, and truly all Americans, to demand our own humanity even as it is being pried away from our souls,” he added.
An award-winning performer, writer, director, educator and cultural strategist, harvey says that his only vision for this production was to make sure that Parks’ words lived freely and comfortably in the bodies of the actors. “One of the things that we talked about in rehearsal was the fact that men don't get to be vulnerable. And how, when you show vulnerability, you're seen as weak. So, what do you do? You hold all that in and then you act in rage. The emotion that you know the most is anger,” harvey explains. “You know how to express anger. What I find in this play is that these men, or men in general, don't get to really express the true complexity of themselves.”
For harvey, Topdog/Underdog is really a love letter to Black men. “It's a chance for me to tell them that I see you, I value you, and I love you. Anyone who wants to understand a Black man's grief, a Black man's pain, and a Black man's joy, should come experience this play.”
Due to language and violence, Topdog/Underdog is recommended for audiences ages 16 and up. General admission is $30. Tickets are available for purchase online. The Mill Hill Playhouse is located at 205 E Front Street in Trenton, New Jersey.
