Heartbreaking Topdog/Underdog at Steppenwolf

It’s hard to overestimate the importance of Suzan-Lori Parks 2001 Pulitzer Prize winning play Topdog/Underdog.  It is a story of brothers, of generational trauma, of our culture of violence, of  love and rage. It is Cain and Abel, here named Lincoln and Booth by dad making a cruel joke. It is a play that continues to be revived for each generation because tragically the story never feels outdated.  We as a community have never evolved past a world where this play might be happening right now, and the really damning thing is that when this play was written, we as a public may not have had a general awareness of the tenacity of systemic racism and now that we have a language and statistics for it and nearly daily demonstrations of it, power is rolling back civil rights compounding the horror. So this play right now is more necessary than ever. 

Steppenwolf is examining its history as it enters a 51st season and the company presented the Chicago premiere of the play in September 2003. Then it was directed by Amy Morton, now it is directed by Kenny Leon whose 2022 revival production won a Tony. It is a beautiful and devastating production, featuring ensemble members Glenn Davis as Lincoln and Namir Smallwood as Booth. Their range of emotions and devotion to each other is moving.  These are boys grown to troubled men abandoned by their families, trying to make it in a world that gives them no quarter and the consequences are harrowing.  This play shows there can be no danger greater than those who say they love you. When the American dream fails a white man you get Death of a Salesman.  When the American dream ignores and shuts out black men you get Topdog/Underdog.

I’m not going to give you the plot, because if you have not seen the play, you owe it to yourself to go. This is a stellar rendition of this complicated tale.  As we move into darkness seasonally and politically, this tragic tale is a must experience moment.  This is not an entertainment, but a fable for our time. Topdog/Underdog is playing Tuesdays through Sundays until November 1, 2026 appropriately just before All Souls Day. For tickets and information go to https://www.steppenwolf.org/whats-on/2026-2027/topdog-underdog

For  reviews go to https://www.theatreinchicago.com/