Topdog/Underdog

23 Aug — 21 Sep 2024

Southbank Theatre, The Lawler

Hilarious and harrowing, Suzan-Lori Parks’s prize-winning Topdog/Underdog is a darkly comic fable about making the most of the cards you’re dealt.

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Explore
This is rated 5 out of 5 stars

‘Deeply absorbing.’

Time Out New York
This is rated 4 out of 5 stars

‘Hilarious, tragic and above all sincere.’

The Guardian

ABOUT THE SHOW

Hilarious and harrowing, Suzan-Lori Parks’s prize-winning Topdog/Underdog is a darkly comic fable about making the most of the cards you’re dealt.

Impoverished brothers Lincoln and Booth – jokingly named by their deadbeat father after Abraham Lincoln and the man who shot him, stage actor John Wilkes Booth – make money through precarious means: Lincoln as a whiteface Abraham Lincoln impersonator at the arcade and Booth as a card-game hustler. Haunted by their past, sibling rivalry gives way to deeper resentment as they uncover their true history.

Hailed as a great contemporary classic, Topdog/Underdog’s recent Broadway return saw it win a coveted Tony Award for Best Revival of a Play, and celebrated Parks as one of Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People.

Directed by legend of the stage Bert LaBonté and starring Damon Manns and Ras-Samuel, Topdog/Underdog deftly moves between vaudevillian comedy and tragedy in a single, perfect act.

 

Accessibility

  • Wheelchair Accessible

  • Hearing Assistance

  • Audio Described

  • Tactile Tour

  • Open Captioning

  • Closed Captioning

Performance Type Performance Date(s)
Audio Described
by Vision Australia
Saturday 14 September at 2pm
Tuesday 17 September at 6.30pm
Tactile Tour
at venue
Saturday 14 September at 2pm (Tactile tour commences at 1pm)
Open Captioning
via screen
Saturday 21 September at 2pm
Closed Captioning
via GoTheatrical App
Saturday 21 September at 2pm
Artwork for Damon Manns

Damon Manns

Lincoln

Artwork for Ras-Samuel

Ras-Samuel

Booth

Artwork for Suzan-Lori Parks

Suzan-Lori Parks

Writer

Artwork for Bert LaBonté

Bert LaBonté

Director

Sophie-High-B&W.jpg

Sophie Woodward

Set & Costume Designer

Rachel Lee

Rachel Lee

Lighting Designer

The Lawler

140 Southbank Boulevard

Southbank, Victoria 3006